The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) has granted two waiver petitions relating to the letter of credit (LOC) commitment letter deadline for the Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF-II) auction (Auction 903). Though both CAF-II auction winners missed the LOC commitment letter deadline out of mistaken beliefs that they were already compliant (one out of confusion following a discussion with FCC staff and the other after submitting a different type of LOC bank letter), they both managed to obtain and submit LOC commitment letters after being made aware of the missed deadlines and while FCC staff were still reviewing other portions of their otherwise timely Auction 903 long-form applications. The Bureau has previously granted waivers of post-auction long-form application filing deadlines “when minor, inadvertent, post-auction delinquencies did not disrupt the auction process, nor undermine the Commission’s policy of facilitating rapid implementation of service to the public,” and similarly the Bureau found that it was in the public interest here to grant these waiver petitions.
