FCC Tribal USF Opex Relief Extends to More Rural Carriers
Thirteen more rural telcos serving tribal lands are eligible for FCC relief from USF operational expense restrictions, beyond the five carriers identified in April and Mescalero Apache Telecom, whose petition for reconsideration was granted Monday (see 1901020033). The 13 are…
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eligible for opex relief under an April order establishing certain broadband limits, "even though they were not affected by the previous opex cap," said a Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 10-90. The newly identified carriers are Atlas Telephone, Beggs Telephone, Bixby Telephone, Cherokee Telephone, Cheyenne River Sioux, Lavaca Telephone, Oklatel Communications, Sacred Wind Communications, San Carlos Apache, Shidler Telephone, Tohono O'odham Utility, Totah Communications and Wyandotte Telephone. Sacred Wind petitioned the FCC to reconsider a 90 percent 10/1 Mbps broadband deployment limit (carriers eligible for relief have to be under that threshold), or, if the limit is retained, to find that Sacred Wind was eligible for relief. That petition was "rendered moot" by the PN, said a commission spokesperson Thursday, before the FCC shut down most operations. A Sacred Wind representative didn't comment. Pine Telephone, Terral Telephone, Gila River Telecommunications, Fort Mojave Telecommunications and Saddleback Communications were also listed in the PN. They were the five carriers identified in April as eligible for relief.