Created in 2020 as the successor to Connect America Fund providing up to $20.4 billion over 10 years to connect rural homes and small businesses to broadband networks
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
CenturyLink scored billions in CAF II funds, eyes the next giveaway: RDOF
CenturyLink has benefited the most from the Connect America Fund (CAF) II, a Federal Communications Commission program that has awarded Universal Service Funds to telecommunication operators to build broadband in unserved and underserved areas of the US, especially rural areas. CenturyLink has received $506 million per year since 2015 in CAF II awards, which will total more than $3 billion over the six-year period from 2015 to 2020. Now, the FCC has proposed a follow-on program to CAF.
FCC Chairman Pai visits Marietta, Ohio and touts broadband fund
Rep Bill Johnson (R-OH), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, and local dignitaries met to discuss the importance of broadband access for Southeastern Ohio’s rural communities. In Marietta (OH), Chairman Pai outlined the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) at the roundtable. He said the RDOF would be divided into two phases. Phase 1 will cost $16 billion and will target areas with no broadband access. He said part of phase 2 will be data collection. “We’ll collect information from providers as a map may show an area has service, but they don’t in reality,” he explained.
Terrific Digital Opportunities Ahead…But Some Tweaks Are Needed To Prevent Storm Clouds In The Future
Here are just a few pieces that we think are worthy of further consideration and some modification before the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) order becomes final.
Broadband Associations Collectively Call For Changes in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
The major broadband associations have gotten to together to urge the Federal Communications Commission to make changes to the proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund: Subsidizing Toyotas or Ferraris?
The problem with using speed alone in assessing the capabilities of broadband networks is that it represents only one product characteristic, and is not necessarily linked with the requirements of the applications commonly used by end consumers.
FCC Plotting to Exclude New York from Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sounded the alarm on a misguided plan from the Federal Communications Commission that would exacerbate the digital divide in numerous Upstate New York communities and called on it to reverse course at once. The FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will allocate $20.4 billion to connect millions of rural homes and small businesses to high-speed, broadband internet.