T-Mobile Seeks More Time To Finish Mobile USF Rollout in Pennsylvania
T-Mobile asked the FCC for an extra year to complete network deployment in one census tract where it received USF Mobile Fund Phase I support. In a request for waiver and extension filed Thursday in docket 10-208, T-Mobile asked that…
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a June 25 deadline be pushed back until June 25, 2016, to complete construction for the Census tract in Pike, Pennsylvania. It also sought a waiver and extension so it wouldn't be required to repay the Mobile Fund support it has received for that tract or to make an "additional performance default payment." T-Mobile said it had finished construction in 16 of the 17 tracts where it was the winning bidder in the Mobile Fund reverse auction. Low bids generally win. T-Mobile "also has completed construction of a mobile network in the PA Census Tract, but the special and challenging nature of the local terrain in that area has resulted in drive test results showing less coverage than required by the Commission’s construction milestone (i.e., less than 75 percent of the road miles covered)," it said. "This shortfall has resulted despite T-Mobile’s thorough planning and use of propagation studies to design the network. While T-Mobile has taken steps to improve and optimize the level of coverage in the PA Census Tract, the company has been unable to produce results that meet the Commission’s requirements."