The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Fixed Wireless Dilemma

I’m working with a number of rural counties that are trying to come to grips with the long-term implications of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) awards in their counties going to internet service providers' (ISP) that plan to deliver broadband using fixed wireless technology. Most of them are not sure what to make of the situation for the following reasons:

• First, the big worry about the RDOF award winners is that the Federal Communication Commission gave RDOF winners a relaxed construction obligation compared to most other grants. An RDOF recipient has six years to build the full broadband solution – meaning some folks won’t see a solution until 2027 or 2028. 
• There is a concern that the FCC has a poor history of follow-through with subsidy awards, such as the many locations that were slated to get Connect America Fund II (CAF II) upgrades that don’t seem to have been upgraded – with no apparent reaction or consequences from the FCC. The fear is RDOF winners will cherry-pick the easiest areas and not bother with the rest and some folks will never get served.
• Another concern is that, in many cases, the RDOF awards were given in counties where there are one or more local ISPs willing to build fiber with grant assistance. These counties feel that the FCC snatched away a fiber solution instead of putting the RDOF awards on hold. The concern several of them have expressed is the sustainability of fixed wireless. They’ve all heard that wireless technology has a shelf life of perhaps seven years, and they worry if the RDOF winners are going to be willing and able to pay for upgrades ten or eleven times during the rest of the century.
• Finally, the ISPs in these counties are dismayed at what can best be described as the checkerboard way that the RDOF was awarded. The RDOF award areas are rarely nice contiguous service areas but are scattered pockets of Census blocks. ISPs can see that it is going to be extra challenging to find other grant funding to bring a solution to other areas. In many cases, they’ll have to spend their own money to build across RDOF areas in order to create a coherent fiber network.

Some counties are concerned that the RDOF winners have not reached out to them to discuss these concerns and to convey their plans for bringing the promised faster broadband. I know that many of these awards were just made this summer, but there has been sufficient time for the RDOF winners to have met with local officials to convey their plans.