CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) is challenging a $3-million application for federal broadband stimulus funds filed in rural North Carolina by a local firm, Electronic Solutions.
The firm has proposed setting up 27 antennas to serve nearly all of North Carolina’s Person County. CenturyLink has responded by arguing that the areas targeted in that application are not unserved or underserved and that CenturyLink’s “affiliates” currently offer broadband there.
Randy King, who wrote the Electronic Solutions application, called CenturyLink’s challenge “a slap in the face.”
Challenges from incumbent providers of this type are sure to increase in coming weeks.