Viasat Says Hughes Opposition to its ETC Bid 'Hypocritical,' Wrong About Rules
Viasat hammered Hughes Network System opposition to its request for designation as an eligible telecom carrier (see 1903070067) after winning support in a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction. "The premise underlying Hughes’s opposition is absurd," replied Viasat, posted…
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Thursday in docket 09-197. "When Hughes offers [VoIP] services over its satellite network, it has no qualms about claiming that satellite-provided VoIP services are 'virtually indistinguishable from landline voice service' and meet the applicable standard for federal support under the [CAF] program. But when a competitor proposes a satellite VoIP offering, Hughes’s view of the world suddenly flips. According to Hughes’s opposition, commitments to offer satellite VoIP services that will meet applicable Commission requirements in states like Alabama, California, Florida, and West Virginia should now supposedly be viewed with 'great skepticism.'" The FCC doesn't require a party to "provide the supported service at the time of its ETC application, or that an applicant engage in testing of a current service to assess whether the future supported service will comply with the conditions of that support," the filing said. Viasat "is not obligated to provide CAF II-compliant services for at least three more years." Redwire withdrew an ETC petition after Oklahoma Corporation Commission jurisdictional objections (see 1903070067). "After completing a more thorough comparison of census blocks awarded to Redwire in [the CAF II auction] with Otoe-Missouria tribal lands, it does not appear at this time that any awarded census blocks are located within Otoe-Missouria lands," the company said.