Nov. 29, 2007 — With 30 days left to apply for federal funding, the Public Services Commission Thursday put off a vote on granting telecommunications company Centennial Communications status to receive roughly $1.2 million in federal Universal Service Fund monies for two more weeks.
The USF is a Federal Communications Commission-controlled program designed to bring better telecommunications services to rural and insular areas. Funds must be spent on phone service in the territory.
Vitelco receives USF funds but no wireless carrier in the territory does. In order for the money to flow to the islands, Centennial would need to be certified by the commission as a competitive Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC).
The decision to delay was made at a PSC meeting on St. Thomas.
Centennial, a Puerto Rico-based wireless provider, has been working since 2005 to gain PSC certification, but has met with a series of delays. (See "PSC Tells Centennial Communications: 'We'll Get Back to You'".)
A report recommending that the PSC deny Centennial's request was distributed prior to the meeting.
The report and its recommendations were prepared by PSC consultants Greg Mann and Jeffrey Moorhead, neither of whom was at the meeting. Centennial attorney Jorge Bauermeister said the report had a number of important factual errors which he would have liked to ask Moorhead and Mann about had they attended.
In the report, Moorhead and Mann concluded the FCC had jurisdiction over the question, not the PSC. Bauermeister disputed this and several other facts and conclusions in the report.
"While you may be barred from imposing jurisdiction, you are not imposing anything," he said. "Centennial is voluntarily submitting."
He said the text of the Virgin Islands law may be ambiguous.
"We would support any move by the Legislature to clarify the Virgin Islands code regarding this," he said. "But time is running out."
Bauermeister said state regulatory agencies generally make decisions on ETC status based upon the best interest of their residents, and by that standard, the PSC should approve Centennial's request.
"Let’s be frank here," he said. "Centennial benefits from this. But because the funds come into the territory and the requirement is they must be spent here, it benefits everyone."
Commissioner Donald "Ducks" Cole asked PSC attorney Tanisha Bailey-Roka for a legal analysis.
"I have to highlight that the people to talk to are Mr. Moorhead and Mr. Mann," Bailey-Roka said. "And for whatever reason, they are not here today."
Bailey-Roka went on to say she was skeptical of some of Bauermeister's arguments, but deferred to Moorhead and Mann for a definitive analysis.
"There seem to be some factual disputes to be resolved," PSC Chairman Joseph Boschulte said before making a motion to postpone the vote two more weeks.
This is not the first delay placed at the feet of Moorhead and Mann. During a Senate committee hearing in August, PSC members came under scrutiny for the long delays in action on the matter.
The two-week delay was approximate. The date of the hearing is to be announced.
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