CenturyLink Asks FCC for CAF Deployment Deadline Extension, Citing COVID-19 Issues

CenturyLink has warned the Federal Communications Commission that the company may not meet deadlines for completing broadband deployments funded through the CAF (Connect America Fund) program. In a meeting with senior commission officials, CenturyLink representatives attributed the deployment delays to the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the commission for a deployment deadline extension.

This isn’t the first time CenturyLink has warned the FCC of a potential delay in meeting CAF deployment milestones. Earlier in 2020, the company said it was not certain if it had met the 80% deployment milestone, which came at the end of 2019. It would seem likely that the FCC will offer some type of CAF deployment deadline extension, as the FCC has been quite lenient in extending other deadlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.