State seeks to pump the brakes on MTA’s rural cancellation

PALMER — State regulators have asked federal officials to hold off on giving the OK to a proposal that would shut down phone service to customers in a rural part of the MatSu Borough.

The Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) late last year requested permission from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to end their Fixed Wireless Service, officially known as the Basic Exchange Telecommunications Radio Service (BETRS).

The system, which provides the only phone service to 215 customers in a 2,000 square mile area in the MatSu and Denali Boroughs with no road service, is “beginning to show signs of failure,” the filing said.

Because other cellular phone companies have service in the vicinity and because MTA is no longer in the wireless business, “MTA must discontinue the service,” they wrote.

But customers in the area told the Frontiersman early this month that ending the service would leave them stranded. The wireless carriers, including Verizon, don’t cover the entire region, and other options, such as satellite phones, are inconsistent.

MTA must get FCC permission to shut down the service. And now Alaska Regulatory Commission (ARC), which oversees public utilities in the state, has asked the FCC to hold off on making a determination until they can weigh in, according to a March 23 letter sent by the ARC.

“The RCA … respectfully requests that the FCC either decline to make a substantive decision … until the RCA is able to full investigate this matter or to make any final determination expressly conditioned on MTA’s receipt of RCA approval for its planned service discontinuance,” the letter, signed by RCA chairman Stephen McAlpine, states.

RCA lost oversight of MTA after a vote by MTA customers removed the association from state regulation. But MTA still operates under the RCA’s authority through a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and as a Local Exchange Carrier of Last Resort, according to the letter.

Because of those designations, MTA is required to provide local service on request, or get the RCA’s approval to discontinue service within its service territory, the letter explains.

RCA is slated to start its investigation at a public meeting March 28 at its Anchorage office. MTA officials will be speaking to commissioners at the meeting, which starts at 9 a.m.