Auditing Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Performance

The Federal Communications Commission just announced increased testing for internet service providers (ISPs) accepting funding from FCC High-Cost programs, which includes the Connect America Fund (CAF) II and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The new rules include the following:

• The number of audits and verifications will double in 2022 compared to 2021 and will include some on-site audits.
• There will be more verification prior to the first required deployment milestone.
• Large dollar funding recipients will be subject to an on-site audit in at least one state.
• High-risk recipients will be subject to additional audits and verifications.
• Audit results, speed tests, and latency performance will now be posted online.

Doug Dawson breaks down the testing process and likely performance of ISPs.

[Doug Dawson is President at CCG Consulting.]