FCC Estimates Six Million Locations Eligible For Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Support
January 14, 2020 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently released a draft Report and Order which establishes a framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).[1] The FCC will vote on the item during its open meeting on January 30, 2020. The FCC initially estimates six million locations could be eligible for support in Phase I of the RDOF.
The RDOF will commit up to $20.4 billion to support the deployment of broadband networks in rural areas that do not have broadband service at speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. Funding will be allocated using a reverse auction that favors faster services with lower latency.
The RDOF will distribute funding in two phases. Phase I will focus on wholly unserved areas. More specifically, Phase I of the RDOF will target $16 billion in support to census blocks that do not have any broadband service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. Furthermore, census blocks without 10/1 Mbps broadband service will be prioritized over census blocks that have 10/1 Mbps service, but lack service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. Winning bidders in Phase I will be required to offer broadband and voice services to all eligible homes and small businesses within the awarded census blocks.
Phase II will focus on partially unserved areas. Specifically, Phase II will target the remaining RDOF support to unserved locations within census blocks that have some 25/3 Mbps broadband service – in these areas, some households have access to 25/3 Mbps broadband service but others do not. Phase II will also include any areas not won in Phase I. Phase II will rely on new broadband mapping data collected by the FCC’s forthcoming Digital Opportunity Data Collection.
Census Blocks Eligible For RDOF Phase I
The FCC expects to hold the RDOF Phase I auction before the end of 2020. Phase I will target support to census blocks that do not have any broadband service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. Furthermore, census blocks without 10/1 Mbps broadband service will be prioritized over census blocks that have 10/1 Mbps service, but lack service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.
To identify census blocks that are unserved with 25/3 Mbps broadband service, the Wireline Competition Bureau will use the Connect America Cost Model (CAM) that has been updated with the most recent FCC Form 477 coverage data. According to the FCC, there currently is no alternative source of publicly available nationwide broadband coverage data that could be used to help ensure that support is not provided to overbuild areas where another provider already is providing voice and broadband service meeting the FCC’s requirements.[2] As an initial matter, the FCC expects the following census blocks will be eligible for RDOF Phase I support:
(1) census blocks for which price cap carriers currently receive CAF Phase II model-based support;
(2) any census blocks that were eligible for, but did not receive, winning bids in the CAF Phase II auction;
(3) any census blocks where a CAF Phase II auction winning bidder has defaulted;
(4) the census blocks excluded from the offers of model-based support and the CAF Phase II auction because they were served with voice and broadband of at least 10/1 Mbps;
(5) census blocks served by both price cap carriers and rate-of-return carriers to the extent that the census block is in the price cap carrier’s territory, using the most recent study area boundary data filed by the rate-of-return carriers to identify their service areas and determine the portion of each census block that is outside this service area;
(6) any unserved census blocks that are outside of price cap carriers’ service areas where there is no certified high-cost ETC providing service, such as the Hawaiian Homelands, and any other populated areas unserved by either a rate-of-return or price cap carrier; and
(7) any census blocks identified by rate-of-return carriers in their service areas as ones where they do not expect to extend broadband service.[3]
Initial FCC Estimate: 6 Million Locations Eligible For RDOF Phase I Support
The FCC initially estimates that about 6 million rural homes and businesses could be eligible for bidding in Phase I of the RDOF. Below are the FCC’s initial estimates of RDOF eligible locations for each state:
Alabama 211,000; Arizona 147,000; Arkansas 222,000; California 421,000; Colorado 99,000; Connecticut 4,000; Delaware8,000; Florida143,000; Georgia 197,000; Hawaii 17,000; Idaho 76,000; Illinois 246,000; Indiana 202,000; Iowa 68,000; Kansas 63,000; Kentucky 108,000; Louisiana 188,000; Maine 35,000; Maryland 49,000; Massachusetts 34,000; Michigan 286,000; Minnesota 134,000; Mississippi 231,000; Missouri 236,000; Montana 50,000; Nebraska 54,000; Nevada 34,000: New Hampshire 21,000; New Jersey 14,000; New Mexico 74,000; North Carolina 169,000; North Dakota 5,000; Ohio 215,000; Oklahoma 162,000; Oregon 91,000; Pennsylvania 197,000; Rhode Island 5,000; South Carolina 120,000; South Dakota 14,000; Tennessee 182,000; Texas 381,000; Utah 16,000; Vermont 26,000; Virginia 217,000; Wisconsin 271,000; Washington 115,000; West Virginia 130,000; Wyoming 21,000. Locations in Alaska and New York are not eligible for RDOF because of previously established programs to fund rural broadband in these states.
Areas Not Eligible For RDOF Phase I Funding
The FCC has initially decided the following areas will not be eligible for support from Phase I of the RDOF:
(1) census blocks where a winning bidder in the CAF Phase II auction is obligated to deploy broadband service;
(2) census blocks where a Rural Broadband Experiment support recipient is obligated to offer at least 25/5 Mbps service over networks capable of delivering 100/25 Mbps;
(3) census blocks where a terrestrial provider offers voice and 25/3 Mbps broadband service according to the most recent publicly available FCC Form 477 data; and
(4) areas awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program.[4]
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[1] Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, WC Docket No. 19-126, Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90, Report And Order, FCC-CIRC2001-01 (Jan. 9, 2020) (Draft Report And Order), available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361785A1.pdf.
[2] Draft Report And Order at footnote 20.
[3] Draft Report And Order at ¶ 12.
[4] Draft Report And Order at ¶¶ 12-13.
