Competitive Carriers Association warns up to $1 billion of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund could be wasted

The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) warned the Federal Communications Commission is about to misspend millions in federal broadband funds, sending money to locations where it isn’t actually needed, due to faulty coverage maps. Specifically, CCA flagged money set to be distributed as part of Phase I of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program. CCA CEO Steve Berry said, “We knew the data was not accurate. The FCC told Congress that ‘no, we’re absolutely certain that the first phase of this that we do, there won’t be any areas that have broadband coverage.’ Well, they were absolutely wrong. And now we’ve shown that not only were they wrong, but they were seriously wrong.” Rather than connecting the unconnected, CCA said funding provided to these areas “will subsidize broadband deployment in areas that obviously are served, including some of the nation’s wealthiest, most densely populated areas.” These locations include Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Apple headquarters, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus and several large airports including international hubs in Dallas-Forth Worth and San Francisco. All told, CCA estimated “funds for nearly 6% of all RDOF locations will be spent in some of the wealthiest, most populous parts of the country, where broadband infrastructure is significantly more likely to already exist.” It added that means the FCC could end up “improperly” distributing as much as $1 billion in RDOF money if it doesn’t change course.