Note 5 - Accounts Receivable

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

Notes to Financial Statements

Loans, Notes, Trade and Other Receivables Disclosure [Text Block]

5 . ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

Accounts receivable, net, consists of the following at

September 30, 2018

and

December 31, 2017:

	2018			2017
Retail customers	$	20,306		$	22,227
Wholesale carriers		8,579			8,146
Other		3,622			4,891
		32,507			35,264
Less: allowance for doubtful accounts		(3,939	)		(2,729	)
Accounts receivable, net	$	28,568		$	32,535

The following table summarizes the change in the allowance for doubtful accounts for the

nine

-month period ended

September 30, 2018,

which is associated entirely with the Company’s contracts with customers:

	2018
Balance at January 1	$	2,729
Provision for uncollectible accounts		2,371
Charged to other accounts		(658	)
Deductions		(503	)
Balance at September 30	$	3,939

In

March 2018,

USAC announced that demand for rural health care support had exceeded the program’s

$400

million annual cap in Funding Year

2017,

which began on

July 1, 2017

and ends on

June 30, 2018,

and that individual applicants that filed successful funding requests would receive approximately

84.4%

of the funding for which they were otherwise eligible. In

June 2018,

the FCC announced that it had raised the annual funding cap for Funding Year

2017

to

$571

million to fully fund eligible funding requests for that year. During the

third

quarter of

2018,

the applications associated with Funding Year

2017

for essentially all of the Company’s rural health care customers were approved or denied. Resolution of customer applications did

not

have a material effect on revenue recognized through

June 30, 2018.

As of

September 30, 2018,

the FCC and USAC had

not

approved the Company’s rural health care rates or customer applications for Funding Year

2018

(

July 1, 2018

through

June 30, 2019).

At

September 30, 2018,

the Company’s accounts receivable, net, of

$6,564

associated with its rural health care customers is based on expected rate and customer application approval levels, and assumes

100%

funding of all approved applications. In the event approved rates and applications vary from the expected approval levels, revenue and accounts receivable will be adjusted accordingly. Accounts receivable, net, associated with rural health care customers was

$8,580

at

December 31, 2017.

Rural health care accounts are a component of the Retail Customers category in the above table. See Note

2

“

Revenue Recognition

” for additional information.