Broadband experts, community groups & internet providers urge FCC to free up rural communities to receive broadband subsidies

A coalition of nearly 70 broadband experts, internet service providers (ISPs), community leaders, and nonprofits wrote to the Federal Communications Commission with a request to grant a limited amnesty designed to prevent the exclusion of America’s least connected rural communities from upcoming federal broadband subsidies. Under the rules of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, communities that are already covered by grants awarded under programs like the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) and Connect America Fund II (CAF II) are not eligible to receive BEAD funding. However, with a large number of RDOF projects projected to default, many of the least connected communities in the US risk being left without the financial support they need to bring critical connectivity to residents and businesses. To address this, the letter asks that the FCC create a limited-time mechanism allowing ISPs who can not — or will not — fulfill their obligations under the RDOF or CAF II programs to relinquish their grants with a reduced penalty. The goal is to incentivize ISPs to release their funding areas now, so that these communities are eligible for BEAD funding and do not miss out on America’s largest ever broadband infrastructure expansion program. If, without such an amnesty, projects default in future years, the areas those grants are designed to serve will be too late to apply for BEAD funding and these communities will continue to struggle without the digital services necessary to thrive in the 21st century.