Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

The Federal Communications Commission just announced increased testing for internet service providers (ISPs) accepting funding from FCC High-Cost programs, which includes the Connect America Fund (CAF) II and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The new rules include the following:

The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Reverse Auction was completed a little more than a year ago to much fanfare and spilled ink, and though we’ve seen irregular updates over the last twelve months, we thought it worth the time to round up what we know so far in an effort to see where we’re at and determine what is likely to come. The RDOF was built to award up to $20.4 billion in grants over 10 years using competitive reverse auctions generally won by the lowest bidder.

Spectrum announced the launch of Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to more than 140 homes and small businesses in the Pittsville (MO) area. Spectrum’s newly constructed fiber-optic network buildout in Johnson County (MO) is part of the company’s approximately $5 billion investment in unserved rural communities, which includes $1.2 billion won in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

Rural-focused service provider Nextlink announced plans to deploy fiber and fixed wireless broadband in 10 counties in east-central Illinois in cooperation with Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative (EIEC). An EIEC spokesperson said the cooperative is not contributing toward the cost of the network build, stating, “EIEC is in the process of implementing an advanced metering system. It requires an extensive communication network.

The Federal Communications Commission is ready to authorize more than $1.2 billion through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to fund new broadband deployments in 32 states. In the largest funding round to date, 23 broadband providers will bring broadband service to over 1 million locations. The FCC also has created the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, a new effort to monitor and ensure compliance for universal service high-cost programs including the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund including increasing :

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge mapped out the operator’s priorities for 2022, unveiling plans to accelerate network upgrades and drop some serious cash on rural expansion projects. “2022 will increase the number of projects to deploy high splits in our service areas,” Rutledge said. This shift will allow charter to “comfortably offer” symmetrical gigabit speeds and multi-gig speeds in the downstream, he stated. Rutledge and Charter CFO Jessica Fischer also talked up the operator’s rural build initiative, on which it plans to spend around $1 billion in 2022.

Local officials say a partnership between Wicomico County (MD) and an internet service provider is expected to help expand broadband access to unserved areas. In a meeting of the Wicomico County Council in mid-January 2022, Acting County Executive John Psota announced a non-legally binding partnership with Talkie Communications, a Chestertown (MD)-based internet service provider, to secure state grant funding for broadband infrastructure projects.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB)—in conjunction with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force (RBATF) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA)—authorizes Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) support for 2,521 winning bids. The FCC reviewed the long-form application information, including the letter(s) of credit and Bankruptcy Code opinion letter(s) from the long-form applicant’s legal counsel.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a September 27 letter from Reps Roger Williams (R-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), and David Trone (D-MD) concerning the review process for long-form applications in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Rosenworcel's response highlighted the steps the FCC has taken to "clean up the program before funding was made available to successful bidders" following the issue of some "questionable locations" chosen in the initial funding decisions.

Not long after the Federal Communications Commission announced that LTD Broadband was the largest winning bidder in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, critics began questioning the company’s ability to meet rural broadband deployment commitments at the level of funding tentatively won. “We’re building fiber networks today and we know experientially what it costs us,” said LTD Broadband CEO Corey Hauer. Broadband construction costs, deployment times and competition are different in rural areas than in metro areas, Hauer noted.