Blackburn Technologies Not Eligible for Post-Storm Support, FCC Says

The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected arguments by Blackburn Technologies, a wholesale provider operating in Puerto Rico, for a waiver of the requirement that only facilities-based providers offering voice and broadband service to end users there are eligible for post-Irma and Maria support. Last year, the FCC adopted an order providing nearly $500 million to “expand and deploy fixed networks in order to give every American in Puerto Rico access to the same high-speed broadband service as those living on the mainland,” the bureau said in a Monday order in docket 18-143: “Based on the record before us, we find that the petitioner has not established good cause for us to deviate from the rule and, therefore, deny the requested relief.”