North Alabama Electric Cooperative (NAEC) has filed a Petition for Waiver seeking relief from application of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund forfeiture and default penalty rules for its surrender of five census block groups. NAEC explained that physical obstacles have made serving the five CBGs cost prohibitive even with the awarded RDOF funding.
NAEC argued that its early surrender of such CBGs will allow these areas to be eligible for other funding programs and ensure that RDOF funds are not spent on duplicative deployment. NAEC concluded that there is good cause for its waiver petition to avoid the potential millions of dollars in penalties that NAEC would otherwise face for its surrender of the five CBGs. Even with the surrender of five CBGs, NAEC stated that it remains committed to comply with all its requirements and deployment milestones with respect to its remaining 21 CBGs funded by RDOF.
