State Telecom Groups Ask FCC to Reject LTD on RDOF

Several state telecom associations want the FCC to review LTD Broadband's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction long-form application with increased scrutiny and, if necessary, reject it, in recent filings in docket 19-126. The Minnesota Telecom Alliance and Iowa Communications Alliance said there's "no indication that LTD has the technical, engineering, financial, operational, management, staff, or other resources" to meet the RDOF requirements for the locations it won in either state. If LTD can't prove otherwise, the commission should reject its long-form applications, the groups said. The Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association filed a similar request, saying LTD "will not be able to provide the requisite broadband service with the support it won in the RDOF auction." The company filed an opposition to MTA and ICA's petition, arguing the groups are part of an "off-key chorus of unsuccessful bidders disappointed in the outcome of the RDOF auction." LTD accused MTA and ICA of "pick[ing] out the winner of the largest amount of RDOF support and, relying on speculation, innuendo and surmise, call[ing] into question" its qualifications. "Attempts by some members of these rural ILEC associations to disparage LTD Broadband after failing to bid competitively in the reverse auction are transparently sour grapes," said LTD Broadband CEO Corey Hauer in an email. "This is not the FCC's first reverse auction nor is it the first time they have withstood criticism from angry mobs of losing bidders." LTD is "excited" to begin building rural fiber networks, Hauer said. "Demand for broadband is acute in these rural areas."