The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announces that certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups (CBG) are now eligible for other funding programs. Charter has informed the FCC that they will not fulfill their commitment to offer voice and broadband service to certain additional CBGs within their RDOF supported service areas in Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Co-Mo Comm has also notified the Commission that it will not fulfill its commitment to offer voice and broadband service to certain CBGs within its RDOF-supported service area in Missouri. Coleman County Telephone Cooperative has notified the Commission of its decision to withdraw from the RDOF support program in all the CBGs covered by its authorized winning bids in Texas. The carriers will be subject to penalties for their defaults. We notify stakeholders that the relevant census blocks are eligible for funding from other federal and state funding programs subject to the rules of the other programs, furthering our responsibility to coordinate with other agencies to maximize the deployment of high-quality broadband service across the United States.

High-speed Internet service connects and builds communities, accelerates economic progress, and enhances public service capabilities. Installing broadband infrastructure can be complex due to permitting processes and regulations that may influence the availability of public rights-of-way, poles, conduits, ducts, and other necessary facilities. Navigating federal, state, and local permitting requirements may pose challenges for National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) grantees and subgrantees. As part of our ongoing technical assistance, NTIA will highlight key areas where states and territories can streamline permitting processes to more efficiently expand high-speed Internet service to everyone in America. Key focus areas are:

• Promote dig once policies to reduce impacts of deployment.
• Promote fair and affordable access to utility poles.
• Coordinate with federal, state, and local transportation agencies to provide broadband right-of-way access.
• Work with public and private railroad operators to provide broadband right-of-way access.
• Encourage streamlining of local, state, and regional permitting processes.

On February 22 AT&T had a massive cellular outage. Ookla’s service Downtector said it recorded over 1.8 million reports of customer problems during the outage event, making this the most widespread outage since a big T-Mobile outage in June 2020. The biggest immediate concern is always 911 and emergency services. Many local 911 centers issued an alert about the problem and warned people to use alternate ways to reach 911. But these alerts are largely worthless to somebody connected to AT&T on a smartphone since it’s unlikely they’d get the alert. AT&T said that the outage was due to “the application and execution of an incorrect process” during a network expansion. Basically, human error. This is one of the big drawbacks of a modernized and centralized network. There is always going to be human error.