Sprint Nextel has done nothing to deserve being deprived of its e...
Sprint Nextel has done nothing to deserve being deprived of its eligibility for universal service support in Virginia, despite a petition by rural phone companies asking the FCC to revoke it, the company said in reply comments filed Thursday.…
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TDS Telecom, FairPoint and Burke’s Garden Telephone said in a June 4 petition that Sprint Nextel’s NPCR subsidiary should lose its “eligible telecom carrier” (ETC) designation in Virginia because it operates in only a fraction of the study areas for which it is designated. Sprint Nextel said the rural telecom companies are using NPCR’s ETC designation “as an opportunity to once again oppose competitive wireless carriers’ participation in the high-cost universal service fund program.” CTIA agreed, accusing the rural phone companies of trying to replace the existing rules “with a burdensome system that encourages competitors to overrule consumer choice through regulation.” Better places to voice “dissatisfaction with the current rules” are “the broader rulemakings current before the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service and the FCC,” CTIA said. The three telecom companies said Sprint Nextel’s view “misses the mark.” There is “clear evidence” that although Sprint Nextel promised to build out its system “throughout its designated areas in Virginia, it instead built out almost exclusively in existing areas of coverage, along highways and in population centers,” they said.