Commitments and Contingencies
|
6 Months Ended |
---|---|
Jun. 30, 2011
|
|
Condensed Notes to Interim Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited) | |
Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure Text Block |
(8) Commitments and Contingencies
Litigation, Disputes, and Regulatory Matters We are involved in various lawsuits, billing disputes, legal proceedings, and regulatory matters that have arisen from time to time in the normal course of business. While the ultimate results of these items cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not expect at this time for the resolution of them to have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or liquidity. In addition we are involved in the following matters:
TERRA-Southwest In January 2010 the U.S. Department of Agriculture's RUS approved our wholly-owned subsidiary, United Utilities, Inc.'s (“UUI”) application for an $88.2 million loan/grant combination to extend terrestrial broadband service for the first time to Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, an area in Alaska roughly the size of the state of North Dakota. Upon completion, this project, called TERRA-Southwest (“TERRA-SW”), will be able to serve over 9,000 households and over 700 businesses in the 65 covered communities. The project will also be able to serve numerous public/non-profit/private community anchor institutions and entities, such as regional health care providers, school districts, and other regional and Alaska native organizations. The RUS award, consisting of a $44.2 million loan and a $44.0 million grant, is made under the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program established pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The award funds backbone network facilities that we would not otherwise be able to construct within our return-on-investment requirements. UUI started construction on TERRA-SW in 2010 and expects to complete the project in 2012 or earlier if possible. We have borrowed $2.8 million in loan funds, leaving $41.4 million remaining loan funds available as of June 30, 2011 for our TERRA-SW project. We have received $2.8 million in grant funds, leaving $41.2 million remaining grant funds available as of June 30, 2011 for our TERRA-SW project.
Universal Service On March 16, 2010, the FCC staff released the National Broadband Plan, including among its topics a proposal to transition existing USF high cost support from voice to broadband networks over a ten year period. On April 21, 2010, the FCC initiated a proceeding to consider interim and long-term USF reforms, including a five year phase-out of support to competitive ETCs. On February 8, 2011, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to consider adopting reforms to its high cost support program, including, among other things, the proposed competitive ETC phase-out and ways to fund and distribute support for broadband services. More recently, a number of industry consensus plans have been proposed to the FCC that would substantially change the methodology for distributing USF high cost support, as well as the access charge regime. We cannot predict at this time the outcome of this proceeding, the prospects for adoption of these or other reforms, the effect on high cost support available to us, or how our access charge revenues and payments would be affected; however, our revenue for providing wireline and wireless local services in these areas would be materially adversely affected by the reduction of USF support.
|