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Cleburne County staff to seek FCC challenge after competing claims stalled fiber project in Ranburn
Summary
County staff said a line-of-sight provider’s claim on federal maps is blocking Charter Spectrum from building fiber to several homes; commissioners directed staff to draft a resolution to pursue an FCC challenge and coordinate with the city and Charter.
A county economic-development official told the Cleburne County Commission that Charter Spectrum was awarded a federal grant to run fiber to households in Ranburn, but the build has been delayed because another provider — identified in county discussions as HCI — has claimed it can serve the same addresses with a line-of-sight technology.
The county official said online research and residents’ reports led staff to conclude HCI is not providing the advertised service to those addresses and that the mapping claim is preventing Charter from proceeding. The official said Charter does not find it economical to build to a small number of households when the federal map shows them as served by another provider.
“We are going to file an FCC challenge to try to get them off the map and release those households so Charter can come in and do the development,” the official said. The county discussed drafting a formal resolution to authorize the commission to proceed with an FCC challenge and also noted the city of Ranburn has already indicated it could join the challenge.
Commissioners and staff also discussed other broadband programs affecting the county. Staff said Point Broadband won RDOF funds to cover rural households in several counties, including Cleburne, and that Point Broadband has until 2027 to complete build-outs. The county official said some RDOF awardees nationwide have defaulted on other projects and that the county intends to monitor Point Broadband’s progress closely.
Staff described additional initiatives: an open-access backbone project (referred to as Alabama Fiber Access) that is building hubs to make fiber backbone capacity available to local providers, and ongoing competition from satellite providers such as Starlink, which county officials said works but can be cost-prohibitive for some households.
Commissioners instructed staff to draft a resolution authorizing an FCC map-challenge for the Ranburn area and to coordinate with the city and Charter Spectrum on next steps. Staff said they would circulate a resolution draft and bring it to the commission for formal action.
Why this matters: Federal broadband-mapping rules and grant awards determine which providers are eligible to receive funding for specific addresses. When a contested mapping claim prevents a funded provider from building, households can remain unserved despite federal awards. The county’s intended FCC challenge aims to reopen those addresses for Charter’s build.
