Puerto Rico Regulator Revises Stance on Phase Down of USF Support
Providers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands disagreed over whether the FCC should cut transitional support for incumbent providers on the islands, in reply comments posted Wednesday in docket 18-143. Puerto Rico's Negociado de Telecomunicaciones (NET) is now calling on the FCC not to slash transitional support, as proposed in an October NPRM (see 2210270046). Initial comments were filed earlier this month (see 2212120053).
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NET said it changed its position on dialing down transitional support after reading initial comments. “It is undisputed that the Stage 2 mobile support has helped mobile carriers to improve the hardening and resiliency of their mobile networks throughout Puerto Rico,” the agency said: “It is also clear that a reduction of … support to 75 percent of its current level is not in the public interest since there is more hardening and resiliency of mobile service infrastructure required.”
The regulator said it now recommends the FCC “reject its tentative conclusion that ‘mobile carriers will have successfully restored and hardened their mobile networks by the end of the Stage 2 period’” because that conclusion “is not supported by the data provided in this proceeding.” The FCC should instead maintain current support levels “until a long-term universal service program for Puerto Rico is implemented,” NET said.
Providers clashed. “The record is clear that it is critically important for the Commission to adopt its proposal in the Further Notice to freeze such support to the incumbent LECs that did not win competitive support at one-third of their total legacy support so that such providers can continue the crucial work of hardening their networks and further implementing resiliency and redundancy measures -- a key goal the Commission established for the Territories in the PR-USVI Order,” said Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (PRTC).
“The only opposition … comes from Liberty, which boldly argues that an extension of phase-down support would undermine its revenue projections when formulating its bids for Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and Connect USVI Fund Stage 2 Fixed high-cost support,” PRTC said: “This argument has no support in the Commission’s rules or policies, and it should be dismissed for what it is: a self-serving attempt by Liberty to use this proceeding to hurt its competitors.”
The only commenter “opposing the extension of transitional support is Liberty, but its objections appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the proposal currently before the Commission, and in any event do not apply to the circumstances in the USVI,” said USVI incumbent Viya. Viya said the levels of support proposed mean Viya and PRTC will be able to further strengthen only their current networks. “Transitional support will simply serve to maintain continuity of service to the locations that the incumbents currently serve at a loss, particularly in the face of the heightened risk of future loss of service due to severe storms in the USVI and Puerto Rico,” Viya said.
“The three other facilities-based mobile carriers in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands uniformly agree … that the current level of transitional mobile support should be maintained and not drastically reduced as proposed by the Commission,” Liberty said. “Not surprisingly, PRTC and Viya, incumbent fixed service providers, support the Commission’s proposal to extend their frozen support but offer virtually no factual data to justify such extension.”