Alltel, Sprint and Western Wireless told the FCC they backed Virg...
Alltel, Sprint and Western Wireless told the FCC they backed Virginia Cellular and Highland Cellular petitions for eligible telecom carrier (ETC) status in Va. The companies stressed that the Commission’s decision on the ETC applications would set precedent for…
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future petitions and was “likely to be influential” in the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service’s consideration of the ETC designation process in the portability proceeding. The board is developing a recommendation in the proceeding on high-cost portability. The companies urged the FCC “to bear in mind that some of the voluntary commitments offered by the Virginia applicants may have general applicability but others should not necessarily be applied to other ETC applicants or converted into standards of general applicability.” Specifically, the companies said they had concerns about Virginia Cellular’s voluntary commitments to spend high-cost funds to upgrade facilities and reach out to underserved areas. “To be sure, the Act requires all ETCs to use all funds only to support, maintain and upgrade facilities used to provide supported services,” the companies said. They said all ETCs should be required to certify that they were using funds properly. “But this does not mean that competitive ETCs should be required to use all high-cost funding for incremental capital expenditures, since ILECs are not subject to the same requirement.” They said that while Virginia Cellular had filed its construction plans publicly, many competitive ETCs viewed such data as very sensitive and would seek confidential treatment, if they filed it at all. “ETC applicants should not be required to make any showing regarding construction plans; at most, any such information voluntarily offered by an ETC applicant should be considered as a factor in the public interest analysis,” Western Wireless and the others said. The companies also supported Virginia Cellular commitments to comply with the CTIA voluntary code of conduct for service quality and to provide annual updates of consumer complaints. Alltel, Sprint and Western Wireless said they already adhered to that voluntary code. “However, we submit that neither of these voluntary commitments should be converted into mandatory requirements,” they said. “Rather, they should be considered as among the many potentially relevant factors in a ‘public interest’ analysis for ETC applications in rural ILEC areas.”