In granting ‘concessions’ to rate-of-return rural carriers on the...
In granting “concessions” to rate-of-return rural carriers on the FCC’s plan to overhaul intercarrier compensation, Chairman Kevin Martin “has ignored more than half of rural telephone subscribers across 42 states,” said Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance President Curt Stamp…
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late Wednesday. Earlier that day, the Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies announced they worked out an acceptable, modified plan with Martin (CD Oct 30 p6). Mid-sized carriers that ITTA represents serve 17 million rural Americans, but those companies “will suffer a substantial reduction in annual revenue,” said Stamp in a written statement. Martin’s edits make a bad plan worse, Todd Daubert, an attorney for the USA Coalition, said in an interview. The Martin plan cuts out wireless carriers, he said. If no carrier in a market can deploy broadband, and reverse auctions don’t find someone who can, a rate-of-return wireline carrier would become a carrier of last resort by default, he said.