The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau has issued an Order granting in part, and subject to certain conditions, a petition filed by Windstream Services, LLC (Windstream) seeking waiver of the FCC’s intercarrier compensation (ICC) recovery rules. Pursuant to the order, Windstream will be able to include in its eligible recovery calculations certain ICC revenues that it was unable to collect from carrier customer Halo Wireless, Inc. (Halo), due to Halo’s access charge avoidance scheme and subsequent bankruptcy. This relief follows prior waivers granted to other carriers relating to Halo’s access charge avoidance scheme. Although Windstream is a price cap carrier and the Commission’s prior decisions involved rate-of-return carriers, the Commission reached the same result, stating: “Both price cap and rate-of-return carriers rely on underlying revenue calculations to determine Eligible Recovery. The rationale offered in support of the conditional grant with respect to uncollected intrastate access revenues for rate-of-return carriers in the Halo Orders applies equally to price cap carriers such as Windstream.”
