Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

Sen Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai voicing her concerns about the ability of Frontier Communications to meet the obligations required by the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction program. This letter follows the recent announcement that nine providers won bids to cover West Virginia through the RDOF program.

Consolidated Communications announced a major fiber network expansion that will add 300,000 new gigabit-capable locations. This expansion is funded in part by the Federal Communications Commission's recently concluded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Consolidated won close to $59 million to bring broadband to 27,000 locations across 7 states. That funding will help accelerate the Consolidated fiber strategy, which aims to reach an additional 300,000 locations in 2021 alone.

The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction results are a puzzle. The auction resulted in far more gigabit networks -- 85% of locations -- than anyone expected, at far lower subsidy than expected. However, there is a lot of frustration and confusion because it is not clear that some of the top bidders can deliver.

The Pai Federal Communications Commission took a victory lap when it announced the results of a $9.2-billion reverse auction that is supposed to bring broadband to over 5.2 million unserved homes and businesses.

Millions of rural Americans in 49 states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands will gain access to high-speed Internet service through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction. Auction results show that bidders won funding to deploy high-speed broadband to over 5.2 million unserved homes and businesses, almost 99% of the locations available in the auction. Moreover, 99.7% of these locations will be receiving broadband with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, with an overwhelming majority (over 85%) getting gigabit-speed broadband.

House Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican Leader Bob Latta (R-OH), and Republican subcommittee members wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an audit of and asking several questions about the Rural eConnectivity Pilot Program within the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA). The representatives say they have concerns about overbuilding, interagency coordination, and the mismanagement of appropriated funds.

Federal Communications Commission policies geared towards improving rural broadband deployment have failed in meaning, money, and mapping.

While carriers were tight-lipped about their Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) prospects during the recent round of earnings reports, vendors talked openly about their opportunities. While the first phase of reverse auctions will run until the bidding stops, vendors are seeing piles of money in the not-too-distant future. While all-fiber is obviously the fastest, best option for reaching rural areas, it's costly. There are also fiber-fed copper access options on the table, but fixed wireless may emerge as a winning formula for bidders such as Windstream and Verizon. 

The next leadership team of the Federal Communications Commission must prioritize restoring the agency’s authority to protect consumers and competition in the broadband market. Under the next administration, FCC leadership should quickly commence a proceeding proposing to reclassify broadband as a “telecommunications service” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. This reclassification puts the FCC on the firmest legal ground to

“We should construct broadband policy based on the ways people use broadband, and that has changed drastically,” writes Benton Senior Fellow Jonathan Sallet in “Broadband for America Now.” He’s absolutely right. Everything has changed since the coronavirus pandemic began – including the ways we use broadband. SHLB has long argued that community anchor institutions (CAIs) require high-quality broadband to serve their communities in the 21st century.