Wireline Bureau Orders 7 Phone Companies to Repay $9 Million in USF Funds
The FCC Wireline Bureau has ordered seven phone companies to repay a total of over $9 million to the USF after audits showed insufficient recordkeeping and noncompliance with accounting requirements related to the companies' efforts to fulfill their USF obligations, according to orders and a news release Wednesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in the release that the agency needs “to closely scrutinize USF support payments” to “ensure funding is used to efficiently connect rural households and businesses.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The orders target Marquette Adams Telephone Cooperative in Wisconsin, West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative Corp. and Duo County Telephone Cooperative in Kentucky, Rural Telephone Service Company in Kansas, Hart Telephone Co. in Georgia, Cross Telephone Co. in Oklahoma and Knology Total Communications in Alabama. The orders “largely affirmed” findings of noncompliance by the Universal Service Administrative Co., the release said. "Commission precedent has long recognized that recipients of high-cost support bear the burden to retain records sufficient to demonstrate that the funding they receive is consistent with the rules of the high-cost programs," said the orders. They also rejected requests for review of the USAC findings and waiver requests from the targeted companies.
“The audit reports found the companies had sought and received improper support,” the release said. The orders are “a reminder of the need for carriers to continue the transition to more efficient support mechanisms and modern IP networks, which do not require these types of reticulated reviews and regulatory structures,” Carr said. The orders directed USAC to recover the funds from the companies.