When things started going south, the investment bankers got real skittish, and that's all these guys had to hang their hat on. Obviously it's been more difficult for C-block carriers in that situation to get the money they need. This diversity, which is characteristic of many independent telcos and rural co-ops, made it much easier for the company to secure financing, according to Pence. Indeed, rural telcos across the country are finding a great many doors opening up, and they are pursuing a variety of strategies to bring their new PCS operations to fruition. When capital is scarce, some rural telcos are opting to seek partners with deep pockets.
Potential partners are in bountiful supply at the moment.
These carriers are eagerly seeking partners to extend their brand names to smaller markets, creating a potentially attractive way for small companies to get into the business. The idea that big carriers won't build out small markets on their own is hardly a new one, of course. The FCC assumed carriers would jump at the chance to lower their overall spectrum costs by reselling spectrum in areas they weren't going to cover. This also would provide another mechanism for getting rural spectrum into the hands of small telcos. The FCC's partitioning and disaggregation rules were intended to make this process as flexible as possible, even though rural telcos were stung by the extension of the rules to other entities.