Border to Border Communications of Texas will go...

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and her staff to ask about its petition to waive the $250 per loop per month cap and quantile regression benchmark limitations of the high-cost support, it said. The waiver has been pending since July. Under Texas law, Border to Border has sought nearly a million dollars from the state USF to make up for FCC reform losses, with a request before the Texas Public Utility Commission (CD April 4 p5). RUS “has suspended Border to Border’s ability to make additional draws on existing loans,” said the company’s FCC filing. “For example, Border to Border is currently unable to replace a 300 foot tower knocked down by a severe wind shear, which is common to its service area, or to fulfill wireless company orders for additional T-1 backhaul facilities.” Border to Border has spent about $100,000 on the waiver proceeding, it said. The Western Telecom Alliance and a representative of South Central Telephone Association also met with Clyburn, said another ex parte filing posted Wednesday. That meeting was about SCTelcom’s requested waiver of the $250 per loop per month cap and quantile regression benchmark limitations of the high-cost support. “Unfortunately, without the requested waiver, reductions in SCTelcom’s high-cost support will put it in likely default of its [RUS] loan covenants within the foreseeable future,” that filing said (http://bit.ly/Zcfnpk). “SCTelcom has been discussing these matters with the RUS staff, but the needed loan restructuring relief appears to require Congressional action.” The company has spent $30,000 on the waiver proceeding, it said.