The FCC should deny petitions seeking a waiver...
The FCC should deny petitions seeking a waiver of Connect America Fund Phase II requirements to provide proof of a current or past customer to have a census block be deemed served, said Century Link (http://bit.ly/1tQylin) and USTelecom (http://bit.ly/1wwY2db) in…
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comments posted in docket 10-90 Tuesday. The agency previously ruled against waiving the requirement and the petitioners have not shown “special circumstances warranting deviation from the evidentiary standard,” a requirement for granting the waivers, CenturyLink said. The waivers would not be in the public interest, CenturyLink said, because “the only thing that can be definitively concluded from these waiver petitions is that these petitioners are not providing service to any consumers in these census blocks. In short, the consumers in these census blocks are already being left behind.” The petitions rehash arguments that by the FCC, USTelecom said. By seeking to have the census blocks deemed served and ineligible for CAF, the petitioners “are seeking to deny the benefits of CAF Phase II funding to rural, high cost households that incontrovertibly do not have broadband today,” USTelecom said. The petitions were filed by Allen’s TV Cable Service, Armstrong Utilities, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Shenandoah Cable Television, Shentel Communications, Suddenlink, Vyve Broadband and WaveDivision Holdings, CenturyLink and USTelecom. There were nearly 200 challenges total against all CAF Phase II funding requests (CD Aug 21 p2).