More Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Controversy

Recently, the Minnesota Telephone Alliance and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to revoke the Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) status for LTD Broadband. ETC staus must awarded by a state regulatory authority or by the Federal Communications Commission to any carrier that wants to collect funding from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. The petition stems from LTD being the winner in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction in Minnesota to receive $311 million to bring broadband to 102,000 passing in the state. In the RDOF filings, LTD promises to build fiber-to-the-premise to all of these passings. The petition contends that LTD can’t make the financial commitments to fulfill the RDOF pledge. The petition relies heavily on a recent South Dakota proceeding where the State denied LTD’s petition to gain ETC status. In this case, LTD already has ETC status in Minnesota, but the filing argues that LTD doesn’t meet the technical, managerial, or financial requirements to tackle a huge fiber build in Minnesota.