Firefly Broadband Looking to Scoop up Virginia RDOF Locations

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2024 – A Virginia broadband provider is looking to take over 463 subsidized homes and businesses that another provider is handing back. The company is asking federal regulators to step in and help seal the deal.

“Firefly Broadband would appreciate any actions the Commission or its staff may be willing to take that would facilitate the assignment of the referenced locations in Madison County to Firefly Broadband,” the company wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.

FiberLight Broadband sought in August to hand back more than 4,700 locations it won in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction.

The company said its planned fixed wireless service was no longer competitive in the areas of Virginia and Georgia it had committed to serve, and noted new FCC data showed existing broadband service at 17 percent of its Virginia locations and 46 percent of its Georgia locations.

The company also said it would “readily participate” in transferring those locations to another provider, who would assume the responsibility to deploy infrastructure there and receive RDOF support to do so. Firefly said in its letter it approached FiberLight in recent months about taking over 463 locations in Madison County, Virginia, but hasn’t received a response recently after initial dicsussions.

Asked for comment, FiberLight said: "We’re currently conducting a legal review and remain committed to working in good faith with Firefly to support the successful completion of this project."

As part of the default process FiberLight notified broadband offices in both states that it was intending to withdraw its RDOF commitments, an effort to make the locations eligible for the Commerce Department’s $42.4 billion BEAD program. Virginia is still finalizing its map for that program, so the locations at issue could potentially still be reserved for a Firefly RDOF build. 

In other states where BEAD maps are finalized, future defaulted RDOF locations would be ineligible for that funding. The FCC notifies other federal agencies that fund broadband projects, like the Treasury and Department of Agriculture, in the event of RDOF defaults.

“If FiberLight is unwilling to assign its RDOF obligations in Madison County to Firefly

Broadband,” Firefly wrote, “then the Commission should take note of this fact when it considers the appropriate forfeiture penalties to impose upon FiberLight for electing to default upon its RDOF obligations in Madison County.”

The agency has levied fines against providers that default on RDOF locations. Fewer of those have been handed down recently as defaults continue to trickle in, with penalties being limited to clawing back disbursed funds. 

The agency referred a Lumen default to its enforcement bureau in September. The base penalty for RDOF defaults generally is set at $3,000 per location.