Decatur Telephone Company in Decatur has announced that the Federal Communications Commission has approved the company’s application to change its method of regulation, which will allow the company to have funds and means to provide the most comprehensive broadband service in the area.
That application will lead the company to receive approximately $7.1 million over the next 10 years to help continue to provide quality telephone service along with expanding and improving its broadband services.
Officials with Decatur Telephone Company in a statement Monday said that the company “had to agree to stringent operational and spending guidelines, including specifically stated timelines, in which to complete its broadband development. The company will be held accountable for all activities and build out schedules through these guidelines, which will be enforced by the FCC.
“While the first interim deployment schedule does not begin until 2022, the company has already begun construction of facilities designed to meet this schedule. In 2017, the company began upgrading its facilities and many customers have already benefitted from these upgrades with more reliable service and faster broadband speeds. As the buildout progresses through our area, more customers will benefit from a more comprehensive and reliable broadband service.”
Decatur Telephone Company is one of 16 small independent telephone companies in Mississippi.
“It is our goal to constantly improve the service that we provide by taking advantage of opportunities that come our way. Decatur Telephone is the only company in Mississippi to have been granted this application this year,” the statement said.
The FCC said in a press release that the funds will be directed through Decatur Holding Company, which is the parent company of Decatur Telephone Company.
The authorization of funding in Newton County was part of a nationwide authorization of over $4.9 billion in support over the next decade for 455,334 homes and businesses served by 171 carriers in 39 states and American Samoa, including 44,243 locations on Tribal lands.
The support is targeted to smaller rural carriers, traditionally known as “rate-of-return” carriers. These carriers agreed this year to accept subsidies based on the FCC’s Alternative Connect America Cost Model, or A-CAM, which provides predictability, rewards efficiency, and provides more value for each taxpayer dollar. The homes and businesses are in sparsely populated rural areas where the per-location price of deployment and ongoing costs of providing broadband service are high, requiring support from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to facilitate network improvements and keep rates reasonably comparable to those in urban areas.
In return for the support that is being approved today, carriers must maintain, improve, and expand broadband throughout their service areas, including providing service of at least 25 Megabits per second downstream and 3 Mbps upstream to over 363,000 locations, including more than 37,000 locations on Tribal lands. Providers will be held accountable through an enforceable schedule for delivering improved and expanded service, with the first interim deployment obligation occurring in 2022.
“Our action today will help close the digital divide and is a win-win for rural Americans and taxpayers, including 1,644 homes and small businesses in Newton County,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Carriers get the predictable support they need to deliver broadband to their customers in these high-cost rural areas. And taxpayers, who fund this support through a fee on their phone bills, are getting more bang for their buck.”
