Rural LECs Seek Limited Waiver From HUBB-Related CAF Deadlines, Penalties
Six rural carriers are asking the FCC for a one-time waiver of penalties for their failure to report geocodes and other location information into Universal Service Administrative Co.'s high-cost universal broadband (HUBB) portal (see 1803010040). Each rural LEC is subject…
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to thousands of dollars in Connect America Fund penalties for missing a deadline to certify they had no locations to report for the first HUBB deadline of March 1, 2018, they said. The petition posted Tuesday in docket 14-58 said the affected RLECs "acted in good faith" and found the requirement to certify even when there were no locations to report "was not explicitly clear." The companies said restoring the USF dollars will serve the public interest because they use the funds to deploy broadband and voice in unserved rural areas. Losing the USF money "was a drastic adjustment" for each of the carriers, "and in some cases the results will directly and negatively impact the rural communities" they serve and could delay network upgrades or deployment of new broadband infrastructure.