Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission approved an additional 68 applications for funding commitments totaling $42,702,383 for Round 2 of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program. This is the FCC’s fifth funding announcement of approved Round 2 applications, bringing the total to over $208 million awarded to healthcare providers in each state, territory, and the District of Columbia. Below is a list of health care providers that were approved for funding in this fifth funding wave:

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a September 27 letter from Reps Roger Williams (R-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), and David Trone (D-MD) concerning the review process for long-form applications in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Rosenworcel's response highlighted the steps the FCC has taken to "clean up the program before funding was made available to successful bidders" following the issue of some "questionable locations" chosen in the initial funding decisions.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is committing $602,985,895.13 in its latest wave of Emergency Connectivity Fund program support, which will connect over 1.4 million students in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. These additional commitments bring the current total commitments to over $3.8 billion, supporting students, school staff, and library patrons in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a September 30 letter from Rep Victoria Spartz (R-IN) requesting a timeline for the "completion of broadband maps" by the agency. "The FCC has made significant progress," said Rosenworcel in her response. "As I have said before, the best time to undertake this effort was five years ago, but the second best time is right now–and we are proceeding with speed in order to avoid any further delay." Rosenworcel provided updates on a number of agency requirements included in the Broadband DATA Act.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is ready to authorize $1,041,074,000 over 10 years in its fifth round of funding for new broadband deployments through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. In the largest funding wave to date, 69 broadband providers will bring broadband service to 518,088 locations in 32 states. “This latest round of funding will open up even more opportunities to connect hundreds of thousands of Americans to high-speed, reliable broadband service,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.