Revised Performance Plans Approved Under Alaska Plan

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) approved the revised performance plans of Bristol Bay Cellular Partnership (BBCP), TelAlaska Cellular, Inc. (TelAlaska), and Windy City Cellular (WCC), filed pursuant to the terms provided by the Alaska Plan Order. The Alaska Plan Order requires eligible service providers participating in the Alaska Plan to submit for WTB approval individual performance plans with their service commitments.  WTB approved wireless service providers’ initial performance plans in 2016.  However, WTB “may require the filing of revised commitments at other times if justified by developments that occur after the approval of the initial performance commitments.” Based on claims that BBCP, TelAlaska, and WCC made pursuant to their respective participation in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program about improvements to their network, WTB contacted BBCP, TelAlaska, and WCC about filing revised commitments to address these developments. In response, the three mobile-service providers filed revised performance plans. 

• BBCP’s revised performance plan commits to provide a minimum of 10/2 Mbps to 5454 Alaskans—which is an expansion of coverage of commitments over the 4530 Alaskans it initially committed to cover with LTE—and it also commits to covering an additional 1277 Alaskans with 25/15 Mbps 4G LTE.
• TelAlaska’s revised performance plan improves the service offered for the majority of the Alaskans that it commits to cover.  Specifically, it commits to upgrade many of its 2G and 3G areas to 4G LTE, and in the Nome, Alaska area, it commits to upgrade to 4G LTE at a minimum of 10/1 Mbps.
• WCC’s revised performance plan improves the service offered from 2G at 200/200 kbps to 4G LTE at a minimum of 5/1 Mbps speeds where people live on Adak Island, Alaska.  Although WCC’s revised performance plan reduces its coverage commitment for the five- and ten-year mark, it reflects a vast improvement in technology and minimum expected download/upload speeds.