FCC Approves Wireline Deal in Indiana With USF-Based Condition

The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a transfer application under which Great Plains Communications will acquire full ownership of Miles Enterprises and various subsidiaries. The assets include Sunman Telecommunications, an ILEC serving southeast Indiana, Miles Communications, which provides facilities-based competitive LEC services in the same area, and Sunman Long Distance, which provides competitive resold long-distance services in Indiana. The bureau imposed a condition, that “the combined operating expenses of the post-consummation company’s rate-of-return affiliates shall be capped at the averaged combined operating expenses of the three calendar years preceding the transaction’s closing date for which the operating expense data are available," said a Friday order in docket 20-193.