A Troubled Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Program Comes Due

The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) kicked off with a reverse auction in October 2020 and has been shrinking ever since, both from big winners not passing more stringent FCC review and a trickle of subsequent defaults. 2024 saw more tumult. While the agency did not grant amnesty to providers looking to opt out as costs rose, it did take steps to ease financing requirements. FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel, a commissioner in January 2020 when RDOF was voted on, dissented in part from then-chairman Ajit Pai’s initiative, arguing the procedures were rushed and that the agency needed better data before moving forward. “In the end, this is not the broadband plan we need. It is not guided by maps. It is not guided by data,” she said at the time. “It is guided by a desire to rush out the door, claim credit and pronounce our nation’s broadband problems solved.”