FCC Seeks Comments on FairPoint Waiver Bid to Ensure CAF I Broadband Support
The FCC set a pleading cycle on a FairPoint Communications waiver request to submit the locations and census blocks in Virginia where the telco deployed broadband that satisfied the requirements for Connect America Fund Phase I, Round 2 subsidy support.…
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Comments are due May 4, replies May 19 on FairPoint's petition to waive Section 54.312(c) of commission rules for the broadband deployment where it "was not authorized," said a Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday in docket 10-90. "FairPoint proposes that the Bureau conduct a challenge process to confirm whether any of the locations in certain previously unidentified census blocks were 'served' at the time FairPoint accepted Connect America Fund Phase I Round 2 support." Without the waiver, Universal Service Administrative Co. might disqualify all 1,027 locations to which a FairPoint subsidiary, Peoples Mutual Telephone, deployed broadband in the previously unidentified 185 census blocks, and require a refund of the associated CAF support, said the petition: "Such a result would leave FairPoint with a substantial deficit of approximately $575,000 -- an amount that otherwise would be dedicated to continued expansion of its advanced service capabilities."