12/30/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants Adak Eagle Enterprises, LLC d/b/a Adak Telephone Utility (Adak Telephone), a new local exchange carrier (LEC) in Alaska, waivers of certain Commission rules so that it may receive high-cost loop support based on projected costs until historical costs become available. Adak Telephone would be eligible to receive high-cost universal service support as of the date it was designated an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC). Further, the Bureau would grant Adak Telephone’s request for waiver of the Commission’s rules so that it may participate immediately in the National Exchange Carrier Association’s (NECA) pools and tariffs.
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12/23/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants the Petition of FiberNet, LLC for a waiver of the data submission reporting deadline set forth in section 54.307 of the Commission's rules.
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12/9/05
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: The Commission released the attached NPRM seeking comment on issues raised by section 254(b) of the Communications Act and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Qwest Corp. v. FCC (Qwest II). Specifically, it seeks comment on how to reasonably define the statutory terms “sufficient” and “reasonably comparable” in light of the court’s holding in Qwest II. The NPRM also tentatively concludes that the Commission should establish an interim non-rural insular mechanism as proposed by Puerto Rico Telephone Company.
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11/29/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants a joint request for waiver of the study area boundary freeze filed by Sully Telephone Association, Inc. (Sully) and Reasnor Telephone Company, LLC (Reasnor). This waiver permits Sully to remove one exchange from its Iowa study area, and permits Reasnor to create a new Iowa study area for the acquired exchange. Reasnor is also granted a waiver of section 69.605(c) of the Commission’s rules to allow it to operate its new study area in Iowa as an interstate average schedule company.
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11/29/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants a joint request for waiver of the study area boundary freeze filed by Direct Communications Cedar Valley, LLC (Direct Communications) and Qwest Corporation (Qwest). This waiver allows the territory served by Eagle Mountain City’s municipal telephone system (EMC) to be removed from Qwest’s study area and will allow Direct Communications to establish a new study area in the state of Utah. Direct Communications is also granted waiver of certain of the Commission's rules to allow it to become a member of the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA), to receive interstate access settlements and universal service support pursuant to NECA’s average schedule formulas, and to receive, to the extent it is eligible, federal universal service support on the date that it would otherwise be entitled to receive such support.
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11/29/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants a joint request for waiver of the study area boundary freeze filed by Madison River Telephone Company, LLC, its wholly owned subsidiary MebTel, Inc. d/b/a MebTel Communications (Madison River) and BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. (BellSouth). The waiver permits BellSouth to remove two exchanges from its North Carolina study area, and permits Madison River to add these exchanges to its MebTel study area in North Carolina. Madison River is also granted a waiver of section 69.3(e)(11) of the Commission’s rules to allow it to continue to use the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) as its tariff pool administrator.
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11/29/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants a joint request for waiver of the study area boundary freeze filed by United Telephone Company of Kansas (United) and Blue Valley Telecommunications, Inc. (Blue Valley). The waiver permits United to remove two exchanges from its Kansas study area, and permits Blue Valley to add these exchanges to its existing Kansas study area. Blue Valley is also granted a waiver of section 69.3(e)(11) of the Commission’s rules to allow it to continue to use the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) as its tariff pool administrator.
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11/22/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants the Petitions of Alliance Communications and its subsidiaries waiver of the data submission reporting deadline.
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11/14/05
Public Notice: The Wireline Competition Bureau announces the designation of a Temporary Eligible Telecommunications Carrier for the purpose of providing the Hurricane Katrina Lifeline Assistance.
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10/27/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau would grant a joint request by Citizens Communications and Frontier Communications, on behalf of 31 eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs), for a waiver of the June 30, 2005, filing deadline for interstate access universal service support set forth in section 54.802(a) of the Commission’s rules.
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10/7/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau grants the petition of RCC Minnesota, Inc. and RCC Atlantic, Inc. to be designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier in portions of its licensed service areas in New Hampshire.
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9/14/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau granted Northwest Communications Cooperative and Noonan Farmers Telephone Company Joint Request for Waiver of the Study Area Boundary Freeze Codified in the Appendix-Glossary of Part 36 of the Commissions rules.
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9/8/05
Order: The Commission conditionally granted the petition of TracFone Wireless for forbearance from the requirement that a carrier designated as an ETC for purposes of federal universal service support provide services, at least in part, over its own facilities. TracFone seeks eligibility for Lifeline support only. This Order does not establish TracFone as an ETC. TracFone's pending ETC petitions will be addressed in subsequent order(s).
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6/23/05
Order: This order corrects our recently released NTELOS ETC designation. NTELOS was designated an ETC for non-rural wire centers but mistakenly included several rural wire centers. This order corrects the list of wire centers such that NTELOS is only designated for non-rural wire centers.
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6/14/05
Order: In this order released today, we grant petition of NTELOS to be designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) for requested service areas in Virginia.
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5/16/05
Order: In this order released today, we grant a request from Sandwich Isles for waiver of the study area boundary freeze codified in the Appendix-Glossary of Part 36, and sections 36.611 and 69.2(hh) of the Commission’s rules. We also grant Sandwich Isles a waiver of the definition of incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC) in Part 36 and in section 54.5 of the Commission’s rules to the limited extent necessary to permit Sandwich Isles to receive universal service support based on its own costs. These waivers will permit Sandwich Isles to continue being treated as an incumbent LEC for purposes of receiving universal service support and participating in the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) tariffs and pools.
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4/19/05
Order: In this order released today, we granted a joint request from Sioux Valley Telephone Company (Sioux Valley) and Hills Telephone Company, Inc (Hills) for a waiver of the study area boundary freeze codified in the Appendix-Glossary of Part 36 of the Commission's rules. This waiver permitted Sioux Valley to remove three exchanges comprising approximately 557 access lines from its South Dakota study area. This waiver also permitted Hills to create a new South Dakota study area for the acquired exchanges. We also granted Hills a waiver of section 69.605(c) of the Commission’s rules to operate its new study area in South Dakota as an interstate average schedule company.
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3/17/05
Report and Order: In this Report and Order, consistent with the recommendations of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, the Commission, among other things, adopts additional mandatory requirements for ETC designation proceedings in which the Commission acts pursuant to section 214(e)(6) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act). In addition, in this Report and Order, states that exercise jurisdiction over ETC designations pursuant to section 214(e)(2) of the Act, are encouraged to adopt these requirements when deciding whether a common carrier should be designated as an ETC.
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2/17/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau released the attached order which extended TracFone Wireless Inc's Petition for Forbearance until September 6, 2005.
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1/14/05
Order: The Wireline Competition Bureau released the attached order which waives certain filing deadlines to give effect to the Commission's Skyline Order, which intended to permit Skyline Telephone to begin receiving high-cost universal service support in 2004.
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1/10/05
Order: The Commission released an Order denying in part and granting in part a request by Valor Telecommunications of Texas, L.P. (Valor), a rural incumbent local exchange carrier formed through the acquisition of approximately 315,000 lines from GTE in 2000, for waiver of section 54.305 of the Commission’s rules. Specifically, the Commission granted Valor a limited waiver of section 54.305 to allow it to receive additional safety valve support consistent with the modifications to the safety valve mechanism that the Commission adopted today in FCC 05-1.
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1/10/05
Order on Reconsideration: The Commission released an Order and Order on Reconsideration amending section 54.305 of the Commission’s rules so that it does not apply to transfers of exchanges between non-rural carriers after the phase-down of interim hold-harmless support, and granting a request by the National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA) to provide that rural carriers may receive “safety valve” support for investment made in the first year of operating acquired exchanges.
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