Allband pressed its case for a 15-year waiver...
Allband pressed its case for a 15-year waiver of USF support caps, in meetings Wednesday with FCC officials. Allband already has a 3-year waiver, granted in July by the Wireline Bureau (CD July 27 p6). The bureau had asked Allband…
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to take “all reasonable steps” to meet the $250 per-line per-month cap on USF support, but that’s simply not possible, Allband told aides to commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai. “Even unrealistic steps to reduce costs and increase revenues will not allow Allband to meet the $250 cap” by the time its waiver expires on July 1, 2015, the rural Michigan telco said (http://bit.ly/15Y97pw). That’s why Allband asked for a 12-year extension in August (CD Aug 27 p1), which would let it repay its Rural Utilities Service loan, the telco said. If the application isn’t granted, Allband will require a new waiver in 2014, which will cost at least $50,000 to put together, it said. That kind of expenditure is “inefficient and unnecessary when it is clear that no action Allband can take will allow it to meet the $250 cap,” it said. Allband also took issue with the Wireline Bureau’s dismissal of its request for a waiver of the regression caps on high-cost loop support. The bureau had said the request was moot because Allband would not be affected by the caps, but “the current regression caps do impact Allband,” the telco said. The company “may be able to absorb the 2013 impacts,” but not the 2014 impacts, it said. “As a consequence, Allband will, by 2014 be unable to pay the full amount of its RUS loan obligation, and voice service along with all services provided by Allband will be in jeopardy.”