N.M. Public Regulation Commission (PRC) may not pay any subsidies...
N.M. Public Regulation Commission (PRC) may not pay any subsidies from state universal service fund for high-cost rural exchanges in 2003, saying it appeared no incumbent telco serving rural areas satisfied requirements for continued state support. PRC ruled Qwest…
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didn’t qualify because it didn’t fulfill requirement to develop plan for reducing implicit subsidies. Qwest advised PRC that it didn’t intend to file subsidy reduction plan because potential $4 million in state high-cost subsidies were outweighed by “controversy, divisiveness and protracted proceedings such a plan would engender.” PRC said state’s 2nd largest telco, Valor Telecom, and small rural incumbent telcos also failed to qualify for payments because they either didn’t demonstrate that they wouldn’t receive double recovery of same costs from state and federal programs or failed to show how they would use their state support for reduction of implicit subsidies. In light of unusual situation, PRC adopted proposal by Valor Telecom for workshop to develop state universal service fund reforms to present to 2003 state legislature. PRC said that when qualification rules for state fund were made, it appeared FCC was going to disallow embedded costs and thereby reduce or eliminate federal high-cost support to many incumbents serving rural areas, but that scenario never came to pass.