The availability of relief under a Texas state...
The availability of relief under a Texas state law “should not impact the company’s eligibility for a waiver of the Commission’s universal service reforms,” a Dell Telephone attorney told aides to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Tuesday, said an ex parte…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
filing (http://bit.ly/100mbXs). The Wireline Bureau Wednesday denied without prejudice Dell’s petition for a waiver of several new USF rules because Dell’s home state provided its own relief (CD May 1 p8). “The availability of relief under state law should not impact the company’s eligibility for a waiver of the Commission’s universal service reforms,” the telco said. It also noted “concern” about waiting almost a year to reject Dell’s petition, when the Texas law permitting state relief was on the books since 2005. Dell believes it met the “very high standard” adopted by the FCC to obtain federal relief, General Manager Denny Bergstrom told us. But now, rural carriers in Texas need to navigate a “new hurdle” in order to stay in business, he said. “The FCC never indicated in its USF reform orders or prior waiver decisions that a waiver was conditioned upon a carrier seeking assistance at the state level,” Bergstrom said. “Dell Telephone filed its waiver petition in June 2012, and it is not clear why the Bureau could not have raised this issue long before now.”