Efforts to expand broadband adoption in Dickey Rural telco’s rural...
Efforts to expand broadband adoption in Dickey Rural telco’s rural service area are “being jeopardized” by USF and intercarrier compensation reforms that have “significantly and surprisingly curtailed the amount of high cost universal service support that DRTC reasonably expected to…
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receive,” the telco told FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and aides to commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, an ex parte filing said. The commission’s elimination of Safety Net Additive support is of particular concern, causing a loss of $1.68 million over the next five years, Dickey said. The North Dakota telco offers free Internet classes to its customers to encourage broadband adoption, and participates in the Rural PC Project, a joint project with NTCA and Microsoft, to provide affordable computers to rural customers, it said. But the telco may have to limit these efforts to expand broadband adoption because of cuts in USF, it said. “Due to the FCC’s extremely onerous waiver process and uncertainty regarding any favorable outcome, there is no viable avenue by which to obtain any relief,” the company said.