The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) has extended a waiver of the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program’s Telecommunications (Telecom) program allowing health care and telecommunications service providers seeking support in Alaska to not use the database of rates (Rates Database) to calculate urban and rural rates for funding year 2023. The Bureau had previously waived the use of the Rates Database in Alaska for funding years 2021 and 2022 finding that Alaska’s uniquely challenging geography and inconsistencies in the Rates Database warranted further review of the method to determine urban and rural rates.
