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Montana PSC Approves Five-Year Rural Cellular Expansion Plan

An ambitious, five-year, multi-million dollar plan to expand cellular service in rural Montana has been approved by the Montana Public Service Commission. The plan was prepared and filed with the Commission a little over a year ago by Cellular One® http://www.cellonenation.com/ , the fastest-growing wireless phone provider in the state.

Cellular One submitted the plan as part of a larger application for funding support from the Universal Service Fund, or USF. The USF, a multi-billion dollar Fund, is comprised of contributions from virtually all of the country’s telephone companies. It is then distributed on the basis of need to the companies serving rural areas, in order to help keep prices and services in those areas comparable with those in urban areas.

Over the past year, Cellular One’s application has been the subject of a rigorous contested-case proceeding before the Commission. On April 15, 2008, following literally hundreds of pages of discovery and expert testimony, the Commission found unanimously that Cellular One’s prices and services met all of the Commission’s quality and affordability requirements.

“We felt good about our prices and services going into this proceeding,” said Cellular One CEO Jonathan Foxman, “and this vote by the Montana Commission validates all of our hard work. We have great respect for the intelligence and work ethic of the Commission’s staff. They have a lot on their plates and yet made every effort to conduct this docket efficiently without sacrificing the intensity of their investigation.”

CellularONE has constructed more than 50 new cellular towers across the state of Montana in 2007 and is aiming for more in 2008. Universal service funding will now permit this deployment. The company was represented in the proceeding by local attorney Michael Strand, a telecommunications industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience practicing before the Commission. “The current mission of the Universal Service Fund is to support the ubiquitous deployment of basic services like traditional voice-to-voice calls,” said Michael, “so they are not allowed to take into consideration Cellular One’s additional services such as broadband Internet access when determining whether make such funding available.”

“However, I sensed that they were impressed by evidence of Cellular One’s commitment to ensuring that every customer who can order basic voice service can also order broadband Internet access,” added Michael. “The industry as a whole is becoming increasingly wireless and data-centric. The Commission could clearly see that Cellular One is moving in the right direction on both counts.”

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Julia Tanner at 703-528-8852 or [email protected], or
Michael Strand at 406-465-5792 or [email protected]

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