The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) has granted a petition for partial reconsideration filed by Farmers Telephone Company of Riceville, Iowa (Farmers Telephone), which classifies five census blocks as served and ineligible for Connect America Fund Phase I funding. The Bureau had previously dismissed Farmers Telephone’s challenges to the five census blocks in its Phase I Challenge Resolution Order after incorrectly concluding that Farmers Telephone only provides broadband service in portions of census blocks that it shares with Windstream Corporation. Windstream had elected to serve 27 locations in the five disputed census blocks with $19,800 in Phase I support. It now has 15 days to identify 27 new locations elsewhere if it chooses.
