Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

Florida-based Tri-County Electric Cooperative teamed with Conexon Connect to deploy a 2,400-mile fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, aiming to deliver high-speed broadband to all of its members within the next few years. The $65 million project is the first FTTH initiative undertaken by an electric co-op in the state. Conexon Partner Jonathan Chambers said the company will be responsible for the design, construction and operation of the network, though Tri-County will own the actual infrastructure. It plans to use fiber and will offer 100 Mbps, 1-gigabit and 2-gigabit service plans.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Rosenworcel sent letters to seven senators on April 8, 2022 in response to their letter regarding the review process for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

On April 12, Dish Network sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Secretary Marlene Dortch urging the Commission to reconsider its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) award to SpaceX's Starlink. Dish said, "SpaceX cannot credibly claim that it will be able to fulfill its obligations under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction rules." The company included four studies in the letter that it states show SpaceX would violate the conditions for using the 12 GHz band for RDOF.

Charter said it has applied to receive $21 million in funding through the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund – American Rescue Plan program to cover the majority of the costs for a rural broadband build in Henderson County (TN). The company has become quite aggressive on rural broadband, which it sees as an opportunity to gain broadband and video subscribers in markets with little or no competition. The company was one of the biggest winners in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) rural broadband auction.

Texas-based Nextlink Internet is hitting its stride as it turns ten, with founder and CEO Bill Baker stating it expects to ride a fiber frenzy and government funding opportunities to exponential growth over the next three years.

CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association Gary Bolton has regularly argued that federal broadband funding should not be going to SpaceX because the satellites have a limited life, and he recently reiterated that view saying he hoped the Federal Communications Commission would not approve SpaceX’s winning bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is ready to authorize more than $313 million through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to fund new broadband deployments in 19 states bringing service to over 130,000 locations. This is the eighth round of funding in the program, which to date has provided over $5 billion in funding for new deployments in 47 states to bring broadband to over 2.8 million locations.

Windstream announced that it has received authorizations from the Federal Communications Commission to receive a total of $523 million from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which the carrier sees as a springboard for growing through public-private partnerships (PPPs). The funding will help Windstream extend broadband to approximately 193 thousand locations across 18 states. RDOF is an FCC program offering funding to help cover the cost of expanding broadband to the unserved, and eventually, the underserved.

It’s taken more than a year for the Federal Communications Commission to authorize all of the nearly $523 million Windstream won in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction, but it hasn’t been resting on its laurels in the interim. During the auction, Windstream won a total of $522.9 million to cover 192,567 locations across 18 states with fiber. Jeff Small, president of Windstream’s Kinetic business, said construction on about 10 percent of its build is already underway.

After a year of trialing gigabit-class fixed wireless access technology from Tarana Wireless, Resound Networks has decided to deploy that service to around 12,000 locations it was originally planning to cover with fiber as part of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF)-fueled expansion. Resound Networks was one of the top 10 winners in the RDOF auction, walking away with $310.7 million in government funding to cover around 219,000 unserved locations with broadband.