The FCC has granted waivers of interim and final buildout obligations to two price cap carriers—Hawaiian Telecom, Inc. (HT) and TDS Telecom LLC (TDS)—for their model-based Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II support. For HT, the FCC found there to be good cause to count towards HT’s remaining interim and final milestones a number of locations that were destroyed following the Kilauea Volcano eruption. The FCC indicates that USAC had previously certified that HT deployed to many of the now-destroyed locations within HT’s service area. For TDS, the FCC found good cause to grant a buildout waiver after TDS’ ability to complete site evaluations on the Quechan Indian Reservation was blocked by a Tribe-issued stop-work order based on pandemic-related travel restrictions. TDS has until July 2021 to either report its completed construction in the affected areas or otherwise provide a status report.
