Chairman Pai's Response to Members of Congress Regarding the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

On Feb 14, 2020, various Members of Congress wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing concern that the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order may inadvertently undermine the ability of states to help close the digital divide due to the rushed process undertaken by the FCC's adoption of the Order.

On Aug 26, Chairman Pai responded by saying the current pandemic has highlighted the impact of the digital divide more starkly than ever, and that is why it is unjust to willfully leave those 10.4 million rural Americans who we know are unserved on the wrong side of the digital divide while we try to locate every single American that lacks broadband. "Waiting is simply not an option for the unserved." Regarding state efforts, Chairman Pai said the basic principle the FCC followed is, "If a service provider already has been given funding (federal and/or state) and is obligated (by federal and/or state law) to serve a specific area with at least 25/3 Mbps broadband, the FCC is not going to give yet more taxpayer funding to deploy a network in that area. That would be an irresponsible use of limited taxpayer dollars, because we would end up either paying a second provider to deploy broadband in an area where a [sic] the federal or state government had already funded a different provider or giving a second-bite windfall to corporations that should not be paid for the same work twice." He went on to write, "[I]f a service provider has state-based funding and a commitment to deploy 25/3 Mbps or better service in one area, it cannot receive FCC funding to deliver similar service to that same area. But it would still be eligible to participate in the [RDOF] in other areas in the state that are unserved and not covered bya funding commitment." He also noted that in total, fewer than 1% of the census blocks initially deemed eligible for the RDOF Phase I auction were removed due to state broadband funding programs.