Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

Chris Mitchell speaks with Andy Schwartzman, Senior Counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, about pressing legal issues affecting telecommunications policy in the U.S.

The Universal Service Fund (USF) has been stuck in legislative limbo as the government wrestles with how to improve the subsidy program. Experts think USF reform could see momentum in Trump’s second term, but how that will pan out is a trickier question to answer. The USF, which supports broadband access and affordability in rural and low-income communities, is made up of four [sic] smaller programs: Connect America Fund, Lifeline, E-Rate and Rural Health Care. One glaring problem with the current USF framework is the shrinking contribution base.

The future of the $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund (USF), which supports broadband access in schools, libraries, and rural communities, hangs in the balance as three critical court cases move forward. In a rare twist, two cases saw oral arguments on the same day, adding a sense of urgency to the outcomes. These decisions could redefine affordable internet connectivity for students, families, and communities nationwide. We summarize each case and outline the stakes for the E-rate and other USF programs. As we await the courts’ decisions, SHLB is not just observing from the sidelines.

Even before Donald Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk, had come to him with a request for his presidential transition. He wanted Trump to hire some employees from Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department. That request, which would seed SpaceX employees into an agency that is one of its biggest customers, is a sign of the benefits that Mr.

Mercury Broadband filed letters notifying the Federal Communications Commission that the company is returning census block groups (CBGs) awarded funding in Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. Mercury said deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction and factors outside of its control, including rising costs and competitive encroachment, have rendered deployment to many of these RDOF CBGs economically unviable and ultimately unachievable.

A bipartisan group of senators is looking into Universal Service Fund (USF) reform and, even better, there are solutions on which both parties can agree.

The House Oversight Committee recently decided to investigate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision in 2022 to deny Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to Starlink. The timing of this announcement clearly has political overtones since it was announced as Elon Musk took the stage at a campaign event with one of the presidential candidates. RDOF was awarded using a reverse auction, where the provider willing to take the lowest amount of subsidy winning the funding.

Elon Musk’s influence over the federal government is extraordinary, and extraordinarily lucrative. His companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies in 2023. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, effectively dictates NASA’s rocket launch schedule. The Defense Department relies on him to get most of its satellites to orbit. His entanglements with federal regulators are also numerous and adversarial.

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel its October 2024 Porker of the Month for her decision to block funding for Starlink to deploy satellite internet service in hard-to-reach areas of the country. The FCC approved and then revoked SpaceX Starlink’s $885.5 million competitive award under the Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF).

In 2021 Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA) agreed to lead the administration’s $42 billion plan for expanding high-speed internet to millions of Americans. That year, she tweeted that “we can bring broadband to rural America today.” Today, nearly three years after Congress passed the infrastructure bill that created the program, not one home or business has been connected through it.