The Federal Communications Commission approved a small do-over to the rules for its new broadband subsidy program, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Instead of blocking subsidies to any area where state broadband dollars are being spent, it will only do so where the money is paying for service at a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.
That’s good new for California. Our primary broadband subsidy program – the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – deems communities with broadband at the achingly slow rate of 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up as adequately served, and only requires grant recipients who build infrastructure with state money to hit the barely better speed of 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up.
As originally written, the FCC’s decision could have been read as writing off CASF-funded communities with those speeds. Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks certainly thought so, and called out the problem before the FCC voted last month. But FCC rules allow the text of a decision to be tweaked even after it’s approved. In his final comments, Starks said the FCC republican majority had a change of heart…
I received notice that the Report and Order we had voted had been revised by the Chairman in response to the concerns I raised…the post-adoption revision approved by the majority was changed to read:
In addition, we will exclude those census blocks which have been identified as having been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program, or awarded funding through other similar federal or state broadband subsidy programs to provide 25/3 Mbps or better service. This is 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.
The FCC will vote again later this month on the tentative date of 22 October 2020 to begin a reverse auction to distribute the initial $16 billion of RDOF subsidies, even earlier than originally planned. That’s not so wonderful for California. The president of the California Public Utilities Commission, Marybel Batjer, requested a delay to give California time to get its broadband subsidy act together. The FCC doesn’t plan to wait.
FCC documents:
FCC report and order, Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, 30 January 2020 (published 7 February 2020)
FCC public notice, Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, published 7 February 2020
FCC commissioner statements, 7 February 2020:
Geoffrey Starks
Ajit Pai
Jessica Rosenworcel
Michael O’Rielly
Brendan Carr