On May 17th, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission released an appeal decision granting the appeals of 15 applicants. In each case, USAC originally ruled that the applicant had violated technology plan regulations. The FCC has the authority to waive their rules if they believe an applicant has “demonstrated that special circumstances exist to justify a waiver.” The FCC argued that these specific cases did not involve waste, fraud or abuse and stated that the “public interest” was served by granting the 15 appeals.
The FCC has given direction to USAC to process these applications within 120 days from the release of this Order.
