A federal circuit court opinion affirming an FCC order on...
A federal circuit court opinion affirming an FCC order on the use of high-cost universal service money supports the FCC’s argument in a case over its new quantile regression analysis to limit USF support for high-cost infrastructure, the commission argued…
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in a letter to the court Friday in case number 11-9900. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled for the agency Friday in a challenge from competitive carriers, who sued when the FCC set aside USF money to be used later for broadband (CD July 16 p1). In its letter to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC said the court decision was a “pertinent authority” that supports the commission’s argument that it would not be in the public interest to stay implementation of the new methodology for imposing limits on expenses that rate-of-return regulated LECs can recover through USF. The FCC also noted that the D.C. Circuit “discussed, with approval,” an FCC waiver process used to provide additional subsidies to telecom carriers. “The Court’s holding is entirely consistent with the FCC’s position … that a waiver for an individual carrier -- rather than a stay of the benchmarks -- is the appropriate remedy where the impact of the benchmarking methodology could undercut consumer access to voice and broadband services,” the FCC wrote.