Another cash infusion is going to Adak Eagle...
Another cash infusion is going to Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary Windy City Cellular to help them keep afloat while the FCC continues its long-pending review of their request for waiver of some new USF rules. In an order…
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adopted Friday, two FCC bureaus gave the Alaskan carriers $40,000 and $33,000, respectively, for the next month. That’s the same amount they got per month when the commission first approved their “limited, interim relief” for six months starting December (CD Dec 26 p14). The commission needs the time to “fully consider” Adak and WCC’s May proposals (CD May 17 p16) for how to further reduce expenses, the chiefs of the Wireless and Wireline bureaus said in their order (http://bit.ly/13V5Naj). The order came the day after late night emails from the carriers’ attorney pleading for relief. “The AEE/WCC interim relief runs out on June 20 -- just four business days from now,” Patton Boggs partner Monica Desai wrote around midnight in letters to each commissioner’s wireline aide, and various agency staff (http://bit.ly/1bOlov8). Desai summarized the companies’ arguments in favor of a waiver, including the “steep cuts the companies have undertaken” and their investment of USF support into plant and personnel to provide “comprehensive” service. “We are hopeful that you will be persuaded to grant a waiver,” she said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment on whether the additional one month relief means an agency decision is expected within the month.