RiverStreet Defaults on Six RDOF Census Block Groups

WASHINGTON, Sep. 23, 2024 - RiverStreet Communications has notified federal regulators of its intent to default on six Rural Development Opportunity Fund Census Block Groups. 

The company notified the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau on Friday that it would surrender several CBGs assigned to it in the RDOF auction. Despite this surrender, the company asserted that they did not intend to relinquish any other CGBs that they were assigned.

RiverStreet is a North Carolina corporation based in Wilkesboro that serves broadband connections to roughly 30,000 customers in rural Virginia and North Carolina.

In its letter, RiverStreet did not disclose the locations of the CBGs surrendered by state nor the number of locations that will be affected.

RiverStreet was not the first company to hand back RDOF locations. Last month, Lumen Technologies defaulted on 3,500 RDOF locations.

The FCC said in a Sep. 9 notice that it expected RDOF winners to keep their promise to connect the unserved to the Internet, saying that those who fail to meet their obligations endanger the integrity of federal infrastructure programs.

According to the FCC’s rules, RiverStreet will be subject to non-compliance measures as a result of its default. 

The news of default came just 11 days after FCC regulators approved the sale of two TDS Telecommunications networks in central Virginia to RiverStreet.