Citing ‘devastation inflicted by Hurricane Omar,’ Virgin Island T...
Citing “devastation inflicted by Hurricane Omar,” Virgin Island Telephone asked the FCC for an emergency waiver of accounting rules that could reduce the company’s high-cost loop support under the Universal Service Fund. While the FCC considers the petition, it…
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should tell the Universal Service Administrative Co. to put any reduction to high-cost subsidies on hold until Feb. 28, the company, Vitelco, said Wednesday in a petition. Vitelco expects to spend $2.5 million through mid-January repairing wireline infrastructure in the Virgin Islands, it said. Unless the FCC waives rules requiring that carriers include net salvage value in USF support calculations, the high plant removal costs combined with “relatively low plant investment over the last several years,” will mean it gets less USF high-cost money, Vitelco said. “This outcome is not appropriate because the negative net plant balance is not the result of an over-recovery of invested capital,” it said. Vitelco’s finances are strained because parent company Innovative Communications is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and because the Virgin Islands Public Service Commission is investigating Vitelco’s earnings, the company said. Vitelco expects the investigation to cost it more than $1 million, it said.