FCC Bureau Ready to Grant $21.3 Million for Rural Broadband Experiments

The FCC is ready to authorize $21.3 million for rural broadband experiments by seven companies in eight states, the Wireline Bureau said Tuesday in a public notice in docket 10-90. The companies include: Skybeam ($12.4 million in Iowa, Nebraska and Texas), Douglas Services ($2.4 million in Oregon), Northern Valley Communications ($2.02 million in South Dakota), Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative ($1.96 million in Minnesota), Federated Telephone Cooperative ($1.46 million in Minnesota), Daktel Communications ($875,000 in North Dakota) and Midwest Energy Cooperative ($211,532 in Michigan). The bureau provided some companies with waivers to certain rules, including that they be designated as "eligible telecom carriers" if they made "good faith" ETC efforts. The provisionally selected bidders must submit at least one acceptable irrevocable standby letter of credit and bankruptcy code opinion by Sept. 29, the notice said.