Farmington special construction appeal granted
Last Friday, the Wireline Competition Bureau granted an
appeal of a special construction denial filed by Farmington School District in
New Mexico. I represented the school district on its appeal to the
Commission.
The application was denied because USAC found that
Farmington considered the state match in its cost-effectiveness analysis.
In its appeal, Farmington demonstrated that it did not consider the state
match when evaluating the bids and selecting a self-provisioned network as the
most cost-effective. Farmington received a bid for a self-provisioned
network and a bid for a leased dark fiber network. The leased dark fiber
project was less expensive but did not win the bid on overall points. The
bidding evaluation matrix showed that the self-provisioned project bidder,
while receiving the most overall points, had been awarded fewer points in the
cost category, consistent with the pre-discount costs of the services. If
Farmington had considered the state match as part of its evaluation and the
fact that the district would have had lower out-of-pocket costs with the
self-provisioned project, that bidder would have received the most points for
cost. WCB therefore found that Farmington complied with the Commission’s
competitive bidding rules.
Click here to see the full order.
