Meeting on St. Croix Thursday, the V.I. Public Services Commission voted Thursday to renew the status of both Vitelco telephone and cell phone service provider Centennial Communications to collect federal Universal Service Fund (USF) grants as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC.)
The USF is a Federal Communications Commission-controlled program designed to bring better telecommunications services to rural and insular areas. Funds must be spent on improving telecommunications service in the territory.
The FCC makes the final determination but usually defers to the local regulatory recommendation – in this case, that of the PSC. Centennial first applied to the PSC for ETC status in 2005. After the V.I. Legislature clarified the territory’s law concerning cell provider eligibility, the PSC approved USF status for Centennial for the first time in February of 2008.
Vitelco has had ETC status for many years and receives in the neighborhood of $1.3 million annually, although the actual amount for this year has not yet been determined by the FCC.
The federal funding is allocated according to the number of individual customers a provider has, so Centennial, with its smaller base of customers, will receive a fraction of the amount Vitelco receives. The actual amounts have not yet determined by the FCC.
Voting to approve Centennial were commission members Donald Cole, Verne David, M. Thomas Jackson, and Sirri Hamad. Commission members Joseph Boschulte and Elsie Thomas-Trotman were absent. Later, when the status of Vitelco was under discussion, PSC Chairman Joseph Boschulte participated by telephone, but did not vote, leaving the tally unchanged, but with Boschulte listed as "not voting" rather than absent.
