The FCC now begins their critical next steps in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) given that the applications by the winning bidders were filed yesterday. The RDOF auction has generated no shortage of interest and controversy since the results were released and NTCA is ready to provide our thoughts and recommendations on how the FCC can right the ship to make the process for review more transparent and accountable. Millions of rural Americans still waiting for connectivity are counting on a rigorous process to ensure those bidders live up to their commitments.
Consumers in areas to be served by winners of the RDOF auction have waited too long for the opportunity to receive high-performance broadband service. As they sit on the cusp of finally realizing the benefits of better broadband, it is important that the Commission take careful steps now to ensure this happens. As one example, prior to the RDOF auction, the Commission acknowledged in particular that those proposing to offer Gigabit-level performance in rural areas using fixed wireless or DSL technologies faced a “high burden” to demonstrate they could do so. Even as the Commission may have allowed certain parties to bid in the auction at such levels using these technologies based upon a preliminary review, the Commission rightly noted that “distance limitations, spectrum bands attributes, channel bandwidths requirements, backhaul and medium haul requirements, tower siting requirements, capacity constraints, required upstream speeds, required minimum monthly usage allowances, and other issues raised in the record” required evaluation to confirm a provider’s capability to offer broadband at the Gigabit level in rural areas like those in the RDOF auction. Since the auction, parties ranging from members of Congress to reputable and experienced wireless internet service providers have called upon the Commission to undertake a careful review of such proposals and to ensure that winning bidders promising such levels of performance can in fact deliver to rural consumers what has been promised.
In the spirit of providing valuable, useful and technical feedback to the FCC, NTCA yesterday submitted a white paper, “Evaluating the Capabilities of Fixed Wireless Technology to Deliver Gigabit Performance in Rural Markets,” to aid the agency in its review of long-form applications in RDOF. This white paper is a roadmap to help the agency in articulating and then employing technical standards to best assess. This kind of discipled due diligence by reference to sound engineering principles and transparently stated objective standards will be essential to ensure that projects moving forward are capable of performing as promised for the benefit of those consumers waiting for better broadband.