Rural Digital Opportunity Fund waiver requests roll in after FCC warning

The Federal Communications Commission recently urged operators to ensure money awarded to them in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction wouldn’t go toward unnecessary coverage, and they responded – with a wave of waiver requests. As a result, millions in broadband funding could be left on the table. Top RDOF winners including LTD Broadband, Windstream, Frontier Communications and Starry were among those seeking to relinquish winning bids without penalty. Collectively, the waiver requests cover thousands of census blocks across at least 26 states. The FCC issued letters to a total of 197 RDOF winners and operators had until August 16 to request waivers for potentially redundant funding areas. While it is unclear exactly how much funding is associated with these new waiver requests, more than 60 bidding entities had already defaulted on winning bids totaling over $78.5 million. According to RDOF rules, operators in default of winning bids are subject to a penalty of $3,000 per violation, but the FCC said in its July 2021 warning letter that it would consider waiving the fees if operators could demonstrate why defaulting on their bids would serve the public interest.