On October 25, 2021, the Wireline Competition Bureau (“WCB”) released an Order suspending the reply comment deadline for MCC Iowa LLC’s (“Mediacom”) Petition for Declaratory Ruling pursuant to Section 253(d). A summary of the petition is included in the email below. On October 15, 2021, Mediacom and the city of West Des Moines (collectively “Parties”) filed a joint request to extend the reply comment deadline to December 29, 2021 because they had reached a high-level agreement on settlement terms, but needed two months to finalize the terms and draft necessary documents. One prior extension request had already been granted, extending both the comment and reply comment deadlines by 15 days.
In the Order, the WCB suspends the reply comment deadline pursuant to section 1.3, rather than extending it as requested. The WCB found that there was good cause to allow the parties to amicably resolve the dispute, but, given the holidays in the upcoming months and the number of details that remained to be resolved, WCB concluded it was better to suspend the deadlines to allow the parties sufficient time to conclude a settlement that may resolve the need for the Petition. Accordingly, the reply comment deadline is suspended until one of the following occurs: (1) Mediacom files a motion to withdraw its Petition because a settlement with the City has been reached; (2) either party files a motion to resume the reply comment deadline because a settlement has not been reached; or (3) neither of those two events occurs within six months of the release of this Order. In the event that 2 or 3 occurs, WCB will issue a Public Notice setting a new reply comment deadline.
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