UniTel Joins Calls for New Charter Order Reconsideration
Rural phone companies like UniTel lack the financial wherewithal to compete with New Charter, and the FCC's overbuild condition on Charter Communications' buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will particularly hurt the goal of universal service, UniTel said…
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in a filing Tuesday in docket 15-149 in support of NTCA's petition to reconsider. That group is one of several parties petitioning the FCC on its New Charter order (see 1606100043). UniTel said it already competes with TWC and would be directly affected by any buildout since New Charter will put money into TWC efforts to pick up lower-cost customers of incumbent rural carriers, resulting in less UniTel ability to sustain universal service and capacity to invest in its network and services. It said the agency should expressly confine any buildout condition to areas not served by small rural phone companies.