FCC helps Charter avoid broadband competition

The Federal Communications Commission is helping Charter avoid broadband competition in New York State with a decision that will block government funding for other broadband providers in locations where Charter is required to build. The FCC plans to award providers up to $16 billion over 10 years from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in a reverse auction scheduled to begin in October. The FCC said that it "granted Charter Communications' waiver request to exclude 2,127 census blocks in New York from the eligible areas list because the company will deploy broadband in those locations pursuant to a settlement reached with the State of New York." Separately, the FCC denied a Frontier Communications request to exclude nearly 17,000 census blocks in parts of 29 states from the auction.