FCC Denies PRTC Proposal on Location Discrepancies in Rules on Broadband Funding to PR, USVI
The FCC said it won't offer USF support to deploy broadband to houses that don't exist, in a recent order on docket 18-143 released Monday on a new wave of USF funding to strengthen fixed and wireless broadband infrastructure in…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Commissioners voted for up to $950 million in support at Thursday's FCC meeting (see 1909260032). In a nod to questions about incomplete broadband mapping data, the FCC will give some consideration to winning bidders who can identify discrepancies in location data within a year of the initial public announcement, but it declined a proposal by Puerto Rico Telephone to apply a pro rata reduction when the actual number of locations is found to be less than 90 percent of the totals counted in the bid. "We expect an applicant's proposal to reflect its due diligence and informed business determinations of the costs and support amount required to satisfy its commitments," the agency said. "The Fund would not be accountable for the incorrect assumptions in a carrier's proposal. Further, we do not wish to provide support for non-existent locations."