WB Denies CAF II Location Adjustment Petition

Connect America Fund Phase II Coalition's petition to waive certain eligible locations adjustment process (ELAP) requirements is "procedurally defective" and would "create a perverse incentive for Phase II auction support recipients not to serve locations in the highest cost areas of the state," said a docket 10-90 FCC Wireline Bureau order denying the petition listed in Tuesday's Daily Digest (see 2006150048). The petition, while "stylized as a waiver request," is a request for reconsideration of commission rules, and the coalition "makes no attempt to demonstrate that its arguments could not have been timely raised," the order said: "Absent special circumstances, individual hardships in meeting obligations cannot outweigh the compromising effects that selective application of the ELAP support adjustments would have on the integrity, efficiency, and fairness of the program." The group's petition asked that the location adjustment process for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction be retroactively applied to Phase II recipients. “The coalition is disappointed in the FCC’s decision," emailed attorney Steve Coran: "It seems strange that the FCC would want to maintain different sets of rules for two very similar programs. We were hoping the FCC would take note of the issues inherent in determining the number of actual locations and provide similar relief to the class of CAF recipients that sought waiver."