FCC Needs Detailed Broadband Maps to Better Spend Rural Money, Windstream CEO Says
FCC broadband maps “lack sufficient and meaningful detail” (see 1905010089) to properly allocate a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 1904160057) proposed last month by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “because carriers only report broadband deployment at a census block…
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level,” Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said Wednesday on a Q1 webcast. Thomas is pleased that the Connect America Fund has helped drive rural broadband upgrades but added current data doesn’t demonstrate whether specific locations are served or unserved. “We simply can’t solve a problem that we do not fully understand,” Thomas said. “It would be reckless to spend tens of billions of dollars over a decade on the back of the current broken mapping system.” The telco reported sales fell about 9 percent to $1.32 billion from the year-ago period but it had the best residential broadband subscriber growth since 2011. It projects it will add 30,000 such subs in 2019. Windstream added 11,400 consumer broadband subscribers in Q1. Windstream continues to replace copper with fiber in parts of its ILEC market but is restrained by the limits of copper in some of the real estate it leases from Uniti, the CEO said. Windstream considers the rent it pays Uniti to be “significantly above market” value, Thomas said. As part of its bankruptcy proceeding (see 1902280017), he said Windstream will evaluate all options for its Uniti lease, “including renegotiation, recharacterization, unwinding the lease,” and “outright rejection of the lease.” Uniti stock closed down 5.6 percent Wednesday at $10.21. Uniti didn't comment. Thomas said it's too soon to say when Windstream will emerge from Chapter 11 protection.