RDOF Winner Coalition Requests Emergency Relief, Citing COVID-Driven Cost Increases

The Coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Winners has filed an emergency petition with the Federal Communications Commission regarding its request for extra funding or other relief measures. The group argues that the COVID pandemic has raised deployment costs dramatically and that the funding the companies won is now insufficient. The emergency petition requests “certain or all” of the same types of relief that the coalition previously requested in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Possible relief recommended include:

• Supplementary funding to RDOF winners that have made an affirmative request for such funding;
• Relief from all or certain aspects of letter of credit requirements on an expedited basis;
• RDOF payments for years 7-10 made accessible by RDOF winners in years 2 or 3-6;
• A short amnesty period to allow RDOF winners to relinquish all or part of their RDOF winning areas without forfeiture or penalties.

Some of the arguments made by the coalition in the letter:

• The FCC has $14.3 billion of the RDOF budget remaining and could request that USAC raise additional funding to supplement RDOF winners’ initial winnings;
• The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has offered additional funding to companies that won funding in the ReConnect program as a result of increased deployment costs;
• The FCC has granted relief as a result of COVID in other contexts, for example, when a planned budget control mechanism for the high-cost program was postponed;
• The cost model upon which the RDOF maximum bids was based could be recalculated based on today’s market conditions to gauge how much costs have increased, and the result could be used to calculate relief funding;
• An amnesty window could make sense, not only for providers whose costs have increased dramatically, but could also help providers that won funding for areas that have since been overbuilt by companies receiving funding through other government programs.