Pai Circulated Order in February to Help Carriers Deploy on Tribal Lands, He Tells Lawmakers
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “circulated to my colleagues an order that would assist carriers serving Tribal lands in deploying, upgrading, and maintaining modern high-speed networks" in early February (see 1702170066), he told a group of lawmakers led by Sen. Tom…
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Udall, D-N.M., in a March 7 letter the commission released last week: “The order recognizes that carriers serving Tribal lands incur costs that other rural carriers do not face, resulting·in significantly higher operating expenses to serve very sparsely populated service areas. The proposal I have put before my colleagues would allow carriers serving Tribal lands a greater ability to recover operating expenses, thus improving the financial viability of operating a broadband network serving Tribal lands.” Pai also told the Universal Service Administrative Company “to give additional time to Tribal families living in the remote reaches of the Navajo Nation to comply with a certification deadline for the Lifeline program,” Pai told lawmakers. Pai also wrote to Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye on the matter, he said.