Universal Service Fund

Areas that receive broadband funding through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ReConnect program or a state broadband program will not be eligible to receive funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). In the RDOF Report and Order, adopted Jan 30 and released publicly on Feb 7, the Federal Communications Commission justified the decision by noting that it was “consistent with our overarching goal of ensuring that finite universal service support is awarded in an efficient and cost-effective manner and does not go toward overbuilding areas that already have service.”

Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai questioning Wisper ISP, Inc.’s progress in expanding access to rural broadband internet in Missouri. In 2018, the FCC awarded Wisper ISP, Inc. $176 million to connect more than 60,000 locations in Missouri with broadband service, but little is known about the current state of the project. "The latest data from the FCC shows 45% of residents in rural parts of my state do not have access to a wired broadband service. Missouri ranked 41st in the country for its limited connectivity.

It's budget season. Federal departments and agencies are making their funding requests to Congress for fiscal year 2021 (starting October 1, 2020 and ending September 30, 2021). And part of the ask is reporting how well an agency did achieving its FY 2019 goals. One of the primary goals of the Federal Communications Commission is to close the digital divide in rural America.

One theme I keep hearing at the National Rural Health Association's 2020 summit is “rural America is having a moment; let’s make it a movement.” And there’s certainly a new movement in telehealth that we should tap into.  Given the significant cost savings and improved patient outcomes associated with connected care, we should align public policy in support of this movement in telehealth.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai visited the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. He met with Northern Arapaho Tribal representatives and toured areas that are receiving funding from the FCC to deploy gigabit-speed broadband. Specifically, Wind River Internet—the provider—is receiving $4.1 million from the Connect America Fund Phase II auction to deploy gigabit-speed service to 849 rural homes and businesses on the reservation

Stakeholder reactions to the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund have been mixed. The new FCC money will be divvied up in two phases, with the first distributing the majority of the funds, $16 billion, to Census blocks where data shows no service is available. What some stakeholders take issue with, however, is that the FCC is using Form 477 data, which has driven its funding in the past but has also been widely criticized.

1. I have zero tolerance for continuing to spend precious universal service funds based on bad data. There is bipartisan—and nearly universal—agreement that our existing broadband deployment data contains fundamental flaws. And yet today’s Report and Order presses ahead with funding decisions based on mapping data that doesn’t reflect reality, plowing the same mission-critical error into a newer, much larger program. We must do better.
2. We have not done enough to ensure that once broadband is available, families can actually afford it. 

While the spirit of this effort is right on—we have a broadband problem—the way we go about addressing it is not right. It will leave so many people, so many communities, and so many places behind. Let me explain why.

I want to highlight three features of our decision today. First, we support the type of high-speed networks that are key to building 5G in communities across the country. So our decision marks another significant step forward for U.S. leadership in wireless. Second, when we launched this proceeding last summer, I proposed that we prioritize truly unserved communities over those that might already have fast Internet connections. Instead of treating every community with less than 25 Mbps the same, I suggested that we first focus on communities that have dial-up or nothing.

While there is a long road ahead, especially in terms of finalizing auction procedures, this Report and Order makes considerable progress in the effort to bring broadband to unserved Americans. And, to make clear at the outset, by limiting Phase I eligibility to those census blocks that have no broadband whatsoever and targeting those consumers truly deserving of FCC assistance, our action should not in any way trigger or exacerbate the rightful concerns raised over our broadband mapping procedures.