RWA Challenges FCC Waiver for Alaska Market
The Rural Wireless Association filed an application for review of a January order by the FCC Wireless Bureau allowing AT&T to meet population- rather than geographic-based construction benchmarks for a lower 700 MHz B Block license. The license covers the…
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Wade Hampton, Alaska, market. The bureau handed down the order Jan. 17, days before the end of the Obama administration. “Based on the data submitted to the Commission by AT&T, the company has only provided service to 8.7 percent of its licensed coverage area, far short of the required 35 percent,” said Caressa Bennet, RWA counsel, in a statement. “The waiver is conditioned on AT&T making some very modest incremental increases in its service coverage (expanding service to reach an additional ten percent of the population over the next nine years). In return, the Bureau granted AT&T a windfall that will allow it to retain the exclusive right to utilize the licensed spectrum in upwards of 90 percent of the geographic territory of its license area, the preponderance of which will likely continue to remain unserved even if the waiver conditions are met.” Bennet said the waiver is "in conflict with FCC regulation, past precedent, and public policy, and establishes a harmful precedent which should be overturned.” AT&T didn't comment.