DC Circuit Sides With FCC Against Consolidated Challenge to SureWest Waiver Denial
A federal court rejected a Consolidated Communications challenge to an FCC order denying SureWest Telephone (now a Consolidated unit) a waiver from a federally mandated USF state certification deadline the telco missed in 2012. "Consolidated fails to show that 'special…
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circumstances' required the FCC to grant a waiver here," said a judgment (in Pacer) Friday of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Consolidated Communications v. FCC, No. 16-1431. "SureWest’s mere 'confusion' about its new regulatory classification after the acquisition is insufficient to justify a waiver. ... And the long delay before filing the missing certification -- nearly four months -- further weighs against granting a waiver." The panel rejected other Consolidated arguments and made the decision on the basis of briefs and official documents, without hearing oral argument (see 1801290029). Consolidated didn't comment.