The FCC reports…

By this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) announces that Gila Local Exchange Carrier, Inc. d/b/a Alluvion Communications, Inc. (GLEC) and Fond du Lac Communications, Inc. (Fond du Lac) have notified the Commission of their decisions to withdraw from the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction support program.1 Fond du Lac’s and GLEC’s letters constitute notification to the Commission that they are defaulting on their obligations to meet their service milestones.2 At WCB’s direction, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) suspended future support payments for these support recipients, and we now direct USAC to recover CAF Phase II support from GLEC and Fond du Lac pursuant to the Commission’s rules.3

On August 28, 2018, GLEC and Fond du Lac Reservation Business Committee were announced as winning bidders in the CAF Phase II auction.4 Fond du Lac Reservation Business Committee assigned its winning bids to its wholly-owned communications company, Fond du Lac.5 Fond du Lac and GLEC subsequently filed long-form applications seeking to become authorized to receive CAF Phase II auction support for their winning bids.6 GLEC was authorized in May 2020 to receive a total of $104,499.00 in support over a 10-year term to offer voice and broadband service to 29 locations in Arizona, and Fond du Lac was authorized in July 2020 to receive a total of $55,010.80 in support over a 10-year term to offer voice and broadband service to 13 locations in Minnesota.7 In April 2022, WCB sent letters to Fond du  Lac and GLEC expressing concern with the carriers’ ability to meet upcoming build-out milestones because they had certified in the High Cost Universal Broadband portal that they had deployed voice and broadband services meeting the CAF Phase II auction requirements to zero locations.8

GLEC and Fond du Lac filed letters in the relevant dockets notifying the Commission of their decisions to withdraw from the CAF Phase II auction support program in December 2022 and March 2023, respectively.9 Accordingly, we consider GLEC and Fond du Lac to have defaulted on their CAF Phase II auction service milestones. Each will receive no further CAF Phase II auction support payments,10 and we hereby instruct USAC to recover funds consistent with the Commission’s rules.11 While GLEC and Fond du Lac will no longer receive CAF II auction support, they remain subject to recordkeeping rules for the high-cost program.12 GLEC and Fond du Lac also remain subject to all Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) obligations unless and until they follow the relevant procedures to relinquish their designations.13 Additionally, GLEC and Fond du Lac cannot discontinue voice service without Commission approval.14