WTA Files Reply Comments in USF Proceeding

Yesterday, WTA filed reply comments to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that accompanied the FCC’s Enhanced ACAM Order, which was adopted July 23. WTA noted that none of the entities that commented in the initial comment period opposed a monitoring period of at least one year to allow the FCC to assess the continuing broadband and high-cost support needs of areas that elected to remain on CAF-BLS/HCLS support, which is something WTA proposed in its initial comments. In its reply comments, WTA also disagreed with NCTA that E-ACAM and the “unprecedented dollars recently appropriated for broadband deployment” are likely, much less certain to “reduce substantially, or even eliminate” the need for legacy support mechanisms.