LTD Broadband CEO Expects FCC to Release the Company’s Rural Digital Opportunity Funding

Not long after the Federal Communications Commission announced that LTD Broadband was the largest winning bidder in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, critics began questioning the company’s ability to meet rural broadband deployment commitments at the level of funding tentatively won. “We’re building fiber networks today and we know experientially what it costs us,” said LTD Broadband CEO Corey Hauer. Broadband construction costs, deployment times and competition are different in rural areas than in metro areas, Hauer noted. Construction teams generally don’t have to worry about things like gas lines, water lines or buried electric lines. “The lower cost structure sort of makes up for the lack of density,” he said. At stake is $1.3 billion in funding that LTD Broadband was tentatively awarded to bring fiber broadband, primarily at gigabit speeds, to parts of 15 states. The FCC has not yet approved LTD Broadband’s long-form RDOF application, a requirement before funding can be released to the company, but that’s not unusual in the case of the largest winners. The ten largest winners in the auction account for three-quarters of the $9.2 billion tentatively awarded and most of those winners also have not yet had their long-form applications approved.