The RDOF Auction Results and Implications for US Broadband Policy

The preliminary results of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction are now public and while it is a long road from auction results to authorization of funding to actual deployment, the results have significant implications for US broadband policy. The results suggest that the cost of fully addressing the broadband availability gap may be much less than many currently anticipate. The results raise important questions around how much subsidy will be needed to attract deployment to serve the remaining unserved locations that will be auctioned in Phase II. If all the RDOF winners meet their commitments, we may be on track to resolve a big part of the rural broadband “availability” gap, but it will not resolve the “affordability” gap in these areas, which is likely to persist, particularly for services at 100 Mbps or better.