Today was a good day on Capitol Hill. Here at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, we were able to thank members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for calling on the FCC to vet thoroughly winning bidders of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) round one auction to ensure that rural Americans receive the services promised by those bidders. There is too much money at stake and too many Americans waiting for connectivity to get this wrong.
The letter, led by U.S. Reps. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and signed by 160 members of the House and Senate – bipartisan and bicameral -urges the commission to conduct a stringent review of the technical, managerial, financial and operational capabilities of winning bidders before distributing universal service funds.
With the bidding portion of the RDOF round one auction now complete, the real work is only just beginning to ensure that broadband is delivered as promised to millions of rural Americans. There is far too much money at stake and far too many consumers on hold to gamble on confidential promises about unproven service capabilities that might only be found to fall short years from now. The real success of this effort will be defined not by the auction results themselves but by the actual delivery of robust and reliable broadband to rural consumers.
NTCA thanks all of the members of Congress who recognize the need for greater transparency and accountability as the FCC conducts the due diligence necessary to declare this auction a true success. With so much talk and focus on rural broadband deployment, it was gratifying to hear from those Members of Congress who take the work to be done so seriously. We are particularly grateful to Reps. Clyburn and Walberg and Sens. Thune and Klobuchar for their leadership in this effort and for their steadfast commitment to ensuring rural Americans receive the services as promised by these mechanisms. They have continued time and time again to prove themselves to be leaders in this critical infrastructure arena.