FCC Seeks to Target USF Support for Rural Wireless Broadband Services

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking further comment on the 5G Fund for Rural America to reignite the FCC's plan to expand the deployment of 5G service to rural communities that remain trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide. Taking advantage of the agency’s new and improved broadband coverage map, which shows that over 14 million homes and businesses lack mobile 5G coverage, the FCC seeks comment on how to define the areas that will be eligible for support in the 5G Fund Phase I auction and proposes to modify the metric used to accept bids and identify winning bids, in order to target support to places where people live, work, and travel in rural America. As adopted, the 5G Fund will use multi-round reverse auctions to distribute support—in two phases—to target mobile universal service in the high-cost program using the FCC's more precise, verified mobile coverage data gathered through its Broadband Data Collection.