RDOF defaulters hinder state BEAD programs

There’s a lot of talk about how the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) might make a mess of things with the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) program. That’s because if a location is covered by an RDOF award, then it’s ineligible for a BEAD grant. Unfortunately, many RDOF awardees have officially defaulted on their obligations to build fiber, or they just haven’t made any progress in deploying the fiber. As a result, the locations that were supposed to be covered by RDOF could be left empty-handed. On December 20, 2023, the FCC said that it had completed all the RDOF long-form application reviews, and it published a final list of 379 recipients with winning bids totaling more than $6 billion to be paid over 10 years. The FCC published this list after a lengthy process in which several high-profile recipients such as SpaceX’s Starlink were denied funds and in which numerous companies defaulted on their RDOF bids in certain locations. But even though the FCC has reviewed RDOF defaults and set fines, some RDOF recipients may still default.