Mercury Seeks RDOF Waiver

Mercury Wireless Indiana and Mercury Broadband request a limited waiver of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund’s (“RDOF”) service milestone and non-compliance rules in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Consistent with Wireline Competition Bureau precedent, Mercury requests limited relief similar to that provided to other carriers that have relinquished some, but not all, of their RDOF-funded support. The Bureau has removed the locations for which carrier has already relinquished support from the carrier’s required location total for purposes of determining compliance with service milestones moving forward. To safeguard the public’s funds, the carrier has paid early the “support received” and the “extra percentage” noncompliance penalty. The “multiplier” non-compliance penalty is assessed at the six-year deployment period and after the year cure period. The Bureau also has allowed waiver recipients to reduce the value of their letter of credit to reflect their reduced support amounts moving forward.