UPDATE: FCC Rejects Starlink’s Long-Form Application For Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Support

August 10, 2022 – The FCC has announced it is rejecting Starlink Services, LLC’s long-form application to receive Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction support. The announcement was made in an FCC News Release. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel provided the following statement on the decision: “We must put scarce universal service dollars to their best possible use as we move into a digital future that demands ever more powerful and faster networks. We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements. Starlink’s technology has real promise…But the question before us was whether to publicly subsidize its still developing technology for consumer broadband – which requires that users purchase a $600 dish – with nearly $900 million in universal service funds until 2032.”

December 16, 2020 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. d/b/a SpaceX was one of the biggest winners in the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction.[1]

SpaceX won a total of $ 885,509,638.40 in 10-year support to provide service to 642,925 locations in 35 states. This comes to approximately $1,377.31 per location.

Like other RDOF winning bidders, SpaceX now must submit a post-auction long-form application no later than 6:00 p.m. ET on January 29, 2021.

RDOF FCC Form 683 Long-Form Requirements & Instructions

The long-form (FCC Form 683) is an application to receive universal service fund support. A winning bidder uses it to prove to the FCC it can deliver on the promises made by winning support in the auction – that it can meet all of the RDOF broadband deployment obligations.

It requires an RDOF winning bidder to disclose an extensive amount of information, significantly more than was provided in the short-form. In general, the long-form requires an RDOF winning bidder to disclose information on: ownership; eligible telecommunications carrier status or applications; financial and technical capabilities; deployment obligations; description of broadband network technologies and system design, currently available funding, and spectrum access.

Generally, RDOF winning bidders are required to comply with the same long-form application process the FCC used for the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction.[2] The long-form application requirements for RDOF winning bidders are listed in Section 54.804(b) of the FCC’s rules, and explained in paragraphs 286 to 322 of the Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice.[3]

SpaceX Long-Form

SpaceX applied to participate in the RDOF auction as a Low Earth Orbit Satellite Operator using its Starlink satellite broadband network. The FCC qualified SpaceX to bid in the Above Baseline and Low Latency service tiers in all 50 states. The Above Baseline tier requires an RDOF winning bidder to provide broadband service at speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. The Low Latency tier requires 95% or more of all peak period measurements of network round trip latency be at or below 100 milliseconds.

Accordingly, SpaceX must now provide 100/20 Mbps to all 642,925 locations in 35 states by the end of the RDOF support period deadline. On its long-form, SpaceX must prove to the FCC that it can in fact do this. SpaceX will primarily rely on the “Description of Technology and System Design” section of the long-form to make this showing.

Technology & System Design Description

The technical broadband network information will be provided in two stages because many bidders won support for multiple areas within multiple states, and it could take a considerable amount of time for some to get the information ready. The first stage of information, a high level overview, is due by the January 29, 2021, long-form filing deadline. The second stage of information, detailed technology and system design descriptions, is due 70 days from the release of the December 7, 2020, Auction 904 Closing Public Notice.

Here is a very condensed summary of the information. Each winning bidder, regardless of the network technologies it proposes to use, must provide information that falls within the following four categories:

Overall Network Design (last mile, backhaul, interconnection, voice, scalability, leased facilities, engineering assumptions, and peak period performance);

Project Plan (overall buildout schedule, last mile and middle mile schedule, projected annual milestones, and achieving 95% location deployment at completion);

Network Management and On-going Operations (monitoring network usage parameters, maintaining performance through 10-year support term, use of internal employees or contractors, and plans for meeting FCC broadband performance measures testing); and

Network Diagram Certified By Professional Engineer (describe wireline and wireless links between nodes, describe all types of nodes and inter-nodal links, locations per node, indicate use of new and existing facilities, voice service nodes, and connections to Internet backbone and PTSN).[4]

Additional Satellite Technology Information

Any winning RDOF bidder that proposes to use primarily satellite technologies must provide additional technical information on its long-form.[5] This means SpaceX will have to provide the following information about its Starlink system:

• Describe how many satellites that are in view simultaneously from any specific location will be required to meet the relevant RDOF public interest obligations.

• Describe how many uplink and downlink gateway antenna beams will be required on each satellite, and the capacity of each beam in megabits per second. For each winning bid area/state to be served, provide both the uplink and downlink beams, provide the gateway call sign, beam ID, frequency bands used, and location (city/state).

• Describe how many uplink and downlink user antenna beams will be required on each satellite, and the capacity of each beam in megabits per second.

• Describe how the gateway capacity is connected to user beams on the satellite, in terms of beams and data capacity per beam.

• Describe how much satellite capacity (in gigabits per second) the applicant plans to reserve, by winning bid area/state, to serve the locations required under applicant’s award and to achieve the required service milestones.

• Describe whether the capacity on the uplink and downlink beams would be able to be reallocated once a satellite commences operation, if the subscription rate is less than 70% in one beam but more than 70% in another beam. If there are circumstances in which such reallocation would not be possible, please describe those circumstances and the states impacted.

SpaceX Must Apply For ETC Designation In 35 States

Pursuant to Section 214(e) of the Communications Act, only Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) may receive universal service fund (USF) support. Since RDOF support is USF support, only ETCs may receive RDOF support.[6]

As part of the long-form, an RDOF winning bidder must submit information on whether it is an ETC. If it is an ETC, the winning bidder will submit relevant documentation (a copy of an ETC designation order from a state utility commission or the FCC).

If the RDOF winning bidder is not an ETC in any of the areas for which it won support, the winning bidder “must certify that it will submit a certification of its status as an ETC in each such area and the relevant documentation supporting that certification prior to being authorized to receive such support. This certification of ETC status and documentation must be submitted by the applicant within 180 days after the release of the Auction 904 closing public notice.”[7]

This means SpaceX will be applying for ETC designation in the 35 states where it won RDOF support, as soon as possible. The question at issue for state public utilities commission is can SpaceX provide the services for which it will receive support. The relevant state commissions will examine SpaceX’s ETC application to determine whether the Starlink network can provide 100/20 Mbps broadband service and meet the low latency standard.

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[1] Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction (Auction 904) Closes; Winning Bidders Announced; FCC Form 683 Due January 29, 2021, AU Docket No. 20-34, WC Docket 19-126, WC Docket No. 10-90, Public Notice, DA 20-1422, (Dec. 7, 2020), https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-20-1422A1.pdf. There were 180 winning bidders, with the 10-year support amount totaling $9.23 billion and covering 5,220,833 locations in 49 states and one territory. Bidding concluded on November 25, 2020.

[2] Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, WC Docket No. 19-126, Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90, Report And Order, FCC 20-5, ¶ 86 (Feb. 7, 2020) (RDOF Order), https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-5A1.pdf. The CAF II auction long-form requirements are found at 47 CFR § 54.315(b)(2)(i-viii). The CAF II auction long-form requirements were built on lessons learned from Mobility Fund Phase I, Tribal Mobility Fund Phase I, and the rural broadband experiments. See Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90, ETC Annual Reports and Certifications, WC Docket No. 14-58, Rural Broadband Experiments, WC Docket No. 14-259, Report And Order And Further Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 16-64, ¶¶ 111-141 (rel. May 26, 2016).

[3] Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction Scheduled For October 29, 2020 Notice And Filing Requirements And Other Procedures For Auction 904, AU Docket No. 20-34, WC Docket No. 19-126, WC Docket No. 10-90, Public Notice, FCC 20-77 (June 11, 2020) (Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice). See also RDOF Order at ¶¶ 86-113. The letter of credit requirements for RDOF winning bidders are listed in Section 54.804(c) of the FCC’s rules and explained in paragraphs 319 through 320 of the 286 to 322 of the Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice.

[4] Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice at ¶¶ 306-309.

[5] Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice at ¶ 310 and ¶ 311.

[6] A long-form applicant must acknowledge in its long-form application that it must be designated as an ETC in the relevant areas prior to being authorized to receive RDOF support in those areas. Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice at ¶ 300; see also 47 CFR § 54.804(b)(5); RDOF Order at ¶ 92.

[7] Auction 904 Procedures Public Notice at ¶ 300.