Rural Carrier Trade Groups to FCC: Members Need Opex Support
RWA and CCA said they expected 'several' more providers to ask for extra funds to avoid shutting down cell sites.
WASHINGTON, August 13, 2025 – Rural wireless trade groups are asking the Federal Communications Commission to consider subsidizing operational costs for rural carriers. Two providers have already asked for extra funding to avoid shutting down cell sites, and the organizations say more could follow suit.
The comments stem from a June 2024 request by Carolina West Wireless for more Universal Service Fund support that it said would help keep money-losing sites online in place where it was the only telecom provider.
“The Commission should view Carolina West’s petitions not only as a request for targeted relief, but as a representative case that highlights the urgent need for a broader, more sustainable support framework,” the Rural Wireless Association wrote in a filing posted Tuesday.
The group said the agency should “initiate a proceeding to evaluate and reform the mobile high-cost support mechanisms to ensure that all rural carriers with fewer than two million subscribers have the resources necessary to maintain and upgrade their networks in areas where they are the only mobile wireless provider.”
The Competitive Carriers Association agreed. CCA said it heard from its members that “several other rural wireless providers are facing the same difficulties” as Carolina West and “are considering seeking similar relief from the Commission.”
RWA added in a footnote that it also expected “several” other carriers to file similar waivers.
Carolina West had asked for enough cash to break even at its money-losing sites for five years. The exact amount was redacted in the public version of the filing.
The company’s annual USF support dwindled since it began participating in 2006, as the FCC phased out legacy support programs in favor of competitive auctions. Plus, the company built new towers with more than $20 million it won as part of the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase I. The agency had planned a second phase to provide ongoing support for those kinds of builds, and Carolina West had planned to participate, but it never got off the ground.
The USF spends about $9 billion annually subsidizing rural broadband networks, plus discounts for low-income households, schools and libraries, and healthcare centers. It has a program that funds opex costs for fixed broadband, but there isn’t an equivalent for mobile.
RWA suggested tapping UScellular’s previous USF funding, about $96 million per year, to support smaller rural carriers where necessary. UScellular, whose acquisition by T-Mobile closed earlier this month, stopped participating in July.
CCA commissioned a report from the Brattle Group that it also submitted to the FCC. The report said the geography and low density of rural areas make it difficult for rural carriers to generate enough cash to provide crucial services.
“The ongoing discussions about rural broadband policy – particularly around spectrum use, satellite expansion, and cost efficiency – risk overlooking a foundational economic principle: markets alone cannot ensure socially optimal levels of service in high-cost, low-density areas,” Brattle wrote.
The FCC established rules last year for a $9 billion fund to support construction of new 5G infrastructure in rural America. Chairman Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the time, dissented from the order, arguing the agency should wait to take advantage of extra fiber laid by the $42.45 billion BEAD program.
Carolina West CEO Slayton Stewart serves on the board of CTIA, the wireless industry’s major lobbying group.
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