The Federal Communications Commission has adopted an Order denying a waiver request filed by Mercury Wireless Indiana, LLC, Mercury Wireless Kansas, LLC, and Mercury Broadband, LLC regarding the recovery of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support due to defaults in several states. Mercury, which provides broadband services in the Midwest, had won over $68 million in RDOF support to serve over 167,000 locations. However, after receiving more than $14 million in support payments, Mercury notified the FCC that it was withdrawing from RDOF obligations in several states, affecting over 64,000 locations.
Mercury sought relief from the FCC’s rules requiring the recovery of support for failing to meet buildout requirements in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Mercury argued that other providers had deployed broadband to nearly half of the defaulted locations and that the Connect America Cost Model had overestimated the number of locations in its service area. The FCC found that Mercury did not demonstrate good cause for reducing the required support recovery and emphasized the importance of compliance with RDOF terms and conditions and noted that Mercury’s defaults potentially delayed broadband deployment to high-cost areas.
