Delay Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Opening

The Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) wrote to ask Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to extend the October 22, 2020 opening of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund 904 Auction (RDOF 904 Auction) and the Rural Tribal Window timeline, set to close on August 3, 2020, by 180 days respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the internet is critical infrastructure and having the ability to virtually conduct business, video conferences with medical professionals, and access online education has become essential for everyone, everywhere. Understanding that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives, our rural broadband providers and our tribal communities are exponentially impacted. Timelines considered reasonable pre-COVID-19 are simply unworkable as our rural communities attempt to respond to the pandemic.... Each of these programs represents critical opportunities for our nation’s least connected; however, the pandemic will not accommodate preexisting deadlines. Even under the best of circumstances, rural communities with fewer resources find it challenging to participate in federal broadband programs, and today we find ourselves in anything but the best of circumstances. We are living in a time many are referring to as the “Great Pause”, a time when our nation, in solidarity, has withdrawn from customary business and social engagement for the health and safety of our nation. Lifesaving stay-at-home orders doubly impact rural areas lacking broadband access and stymie efforts to engage, train, and prepare the documentation necessary to participate in critical programs. In this spirit, we ask you to acknowledge these unprecedented times and grant a 6-month postponement for both of these critically important proceedings.