Wireline Bureau Waives Deadlines Over Fiona Damage

The FCC Wireline Bureau waived provisions of the E-rate, Emergency Connectivity Fund, Rural Health Care, COVID-19 Telehealth, Lifeline, and Affordable Connectivity Program rules for participants and USF contributors in Puerto Rico due to damage from Hurricane Fiona, said an order Thursday. The order includes extensions for E-rate, Rural Health Care and ECF deadlines, waivers of document retention rules for records destroyed by Hurricane Fiona, and increased flexibility for service substitutions. It also waives Lifeline non-usage, recertification and reverification requirements and ACP recertification and de-enrollment requirements for subscribers in Puerto Rico. “Given the damage caused by Hurricane Fiona to Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, strict compliance with these rules would be impracticable and would risk harm” to subscribers, the order said. The order also waives some USF requirements for affected contributors. “The extensive damage to property and facilities caused by Hurricane Fiona has rendered many providers unable to serve the Affected Disaster Areas.” The FCC disaster information reporting system showed 26.4% of cellsites down Thursday, and 703,576 wireline subscribers without service, compared with 741,451 Wednesday. The report shows five FM stations and four AM stations still out of service and no public safety access points down.