A Troubled Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Program Comes Due
The first deployment deadline for RDOF passed on Dec. 31, 2024 – yesterday.
Jake Neenan
It’s the broadband funding albatross that Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel never wanted.
The agency’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund kicked off with a reverse auction in October 2020 and has been shrinking ever since, both from big winners not passing more stringent FCC review and a trickle of subsequent defaults. 2024 saw more tumult. While the agency did not grant amnesty to providers looking to opt out as costs rose, it did take steps to ease financing requirements.
The 12 Days of Broadband (click to open)
- On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
An extra-planetary-life-promoting tech billionaire set on electing a president. - On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 23 million served by the Affordable Connectivity Program.
- On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
3rd year without the Federal Communications Commission having spectrum auction authority. - On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funds already allocated. - On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
5,500 active satellites currently in Low-Earth Orbit. - On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
More than 6 years of service at the FCC by Commissioner and Chairman-designate Brendan Carr. - On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
More than 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually consumed by data centers in the U.S. - On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$8.1 billion dollars in annual Universal Service Funds. - On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$90 billion in global telecom Merger & Acquisition deals value in 2024. - On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
100 broadband-related rulemakings at the FCC relying on Chevron Deference. - On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
Nearly 11 years to complete the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, complete with defaulted locations. - On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
More than a dozen policy-makers and pro-tech thinkers echoing the Andreessen-Horowitz “Little Tech” agenda.
Rosenworcel, a commissioner in January 2020 when the program was voted on, dissented in part from then-chairman Ajit Pai’s initiative, arguing the procedures were rushed and that the agency needed better data before moving forward.
“In the end, this is not the broadband plan we need. It is not guided by maps. It is not guided by data,” she said at the time. “It is guided by a desire to rush out the door, claim credit and pronounce our nation’s broadband problems solved.”
