Charter Responds to Critics of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Winning Bid

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, Charter defended itself against a group of bidders in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction that have questioned Charter’s winning bid in the auction. Charter had the top bid in the auction and is poised to gain $1.22 billion to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to unserved rural areas. Charter made its filing in reply comments in connection with the company’s request to obtain eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status for Alabama, New Hampshire, and Tennessee. Winning bidders in the RDOF auction are required to obtain ETC status before undertaking their deployments. Status is awarded on a state-by-state basis, and while some states take responsibility for ETC approvals, others – including those three states — give that authority to the FCC. The group that questioned Charter’s ETC petition is the Ensuring RDOF Integrity Coalition (ERIC). ERIC’s petition against Charter “prognosticates without any evidence about Charter’s intentions” and “should be dismissed as irrelevant, speculative and, with respect to some issues, untimely,” Charter said in its filing. Charter argues that it is well qualified to undertake its RDOF buildout, noting that the company is the second largest broadband connectivity company in the country with over 31 million customers and with 99.9% network reliability. Charter also cited the FCC’s most recent Measuring Broadband Report, which noted that the company exceeds 100% of its advertised speeds during peak times.