FCC Acts to Assist NTIA and Tribes in Maximizing use of Tribal Broabdband Connectivity Program Funding

The Federal Communications Commission grants Resound Networks a limited waiver of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligation to serve areas in Oklahoma and Arizona overlapped by the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma's and Cocopah Tribe of Arizona's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Round 1 awards. The FCC relieves Resound of the obligation to serve these areas, with agreement from the Tonkawa and Cocopah Tribes, in order to promote the Tribes’ decisions to serve their members through enforceable commitments under their TBCP Round 1 awards requiring deployment of networks that serve their Tribal lands in these areas. This will also further interagency coordination efforts by avoiding duplication of funding and maximizing the use of federal funds to support broadband service to as many unserved consumers as possible. Once the Bureau publishes revised location counts for all RDOF recipients, the FCC will direct the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to adjust Resound’s RDOF support for the overlapped areas and recover any support that has been disbursed for these areas on a pro rata basis.