Federal Communications Commissioner Carr on broadband mapping and rural development

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr made headlines when he denounced the FCC's decision to deny Starlink $885.5 million in broadband subsidy support from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction. Commissioner Carr believes that Starlink would have had a positive impact on the future of the RDOF, specifically in how it could have helped unify the broadband coverage map to all corners of the country. The RDOF Phase I auction was designed to be the first of two auctions which would allocate a total pot of more than $20 billion to expand broadband in hard-to-reach areas of the country. Phase I focused on completely unserved locations and doled out a total of $9.2 billion, though the FCC rejected winning bids from Starlink and LTD Broadband totaling more than $2.1 billion. That means there is still around $13 billion on the table for a Phase II auction, which would focus on remaining unserved locations as well as underserved areas. Commissioner Carr said the need for a second round is less clear in light of other federal broadband funding efforts, such as the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Though, if the FCC does decide to push ahead with a Phase II auction, Commissioner Carr said he’s open to making changes to auction rules to avoid a repeat of the Starlink decision. Concerning broadband "overbuilding," Commissioner Carr argued priority number one for federal dollars should be connecting all unserved locations rather than diverting funds to overbuild or update existing service.