The Federal Communications Commission has granted a request from the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority for a waiver on certain licenses to complete necessary work for 4G broadband network.
ASTCA had petitioned the (FCC) for a waiver preserving their licenses or additional time on their construction buildout requirements.
A statement from Congresswoman Aumua Amata said she contacted the FCC at ASTCA’s request to support the needed waiver.
The FCC responded today granting the waiver allowing ASTCA to proceed with buildouts of the LTE high speed wireless infrastructure.
ASTCA was the winning bidder for the licenses comprising 80 megahertz of spectrum in auctions and the bureau granted the licenses to ASTCA on January 24, 2011.
Accordingly ASTCA’s initial five year construction deadline for each of its licenses was January 24, 2016.
Under commission rules, ASTCA was required to serve either one third of the population of American Samoa for its 30 megahertz license and one fourth of the population for its 10 MHz licenses or demonstrate substantial service in each licensed area by that date.
On March 2 last year, as a result of ASTCA’s failure to file construction notifications or a request for waiver or extension of time to meet its build out deadline, the FCC issued the termination notices placing the licenses in termination pending status.
Subsequently, ASTCA filed the petition on April 1 last year, requesting an extension of less than one year to meet its five year build out deadlines.
Today, the FAA approved the waiver saying that the instant case presents unique circumstances and warrants a waiver.
It said although as a general matter it is a licensee’s general responsibility to conduct its due diligence to ensure it can meet its performance obligations, construction of facilities in this area is unusually difficult, involving complications generally not experienced in other areas of the country.
The FCC took into account American Samoa’s limited shipping, limited flights, lack of skilled workers, and unfavorable island weather as factors in ASTCA not being able to meet the deadline.
The FCC said any number of unpredictable factors from weather related transportation problems to work stoppages at ports can delay shipments.
Further there is limited access to skilled telecommunications personnel who can readily construct wireless facilities; instead specialized contractors must be brought in from the mainland.
The bureau said, “We agree with ASTCA that the unique conditions associated with constructing facilities in American Samoa make strict application of the commission’s performance requirement in this instance contrary to the public interest.”
FCC has granted ASTCA its request for a waiver of the five year construction requirements and reinstate the affected licenses.
The FCC approved ASTCA’s request for a period of 7 months from the date of reinstatement of licenses to fully deploy its 4G LTE network.
