FCC Urged to Delay First RDOF Auctions Until Better Broadband Mapping Data Ready

ISPs and state telecom authorities asked the FCC to delay the first-round auction for its $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund until it gets better broadband mapping data. In replies posted through Tuesday in docket 19-126, the California Public Utilities Commission, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) and Navajo Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, among others, supported delay.

If the FCC proceeds with the phase 1 RDOF auction before a national broadband location map is updated, it should implement a limited one first in the census blocks under consideration, AT&T said. It cited estimates doing so could take five to eight months. Windstream agreed.

Slower RDOF rollout could complicate a thorny issue: what's considered the carrier of last resort as the rural USF market transitions from the Connect American Fund program to RDOF. Some said consumers could get caught in a service gap if ILECs that provide broadband under CAF either don't participate in RDOF auctions or don't win bids, or if their service terms don't overlap as new RDOF recipients build out.

Help the switch from CAF to RDOF, Frontier Communications said, so rural consumers aren't threatened by "loss of service or a spike in pricing." USTelecom wants the FCC to "declare that the new [RDOF] auction winner is responsible for voice services throughout the supported area as soon as it is authorized to receive [RDOF] support" and a new eligible telecom carrier is named, it said.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission disagreed. "An ETC that is not receiving federal high-cost support should continue to satisfy its Lifeline obligations," it said.

NASUCA said the FCC may need to devote additional USF support to manage the changeover. It asked the agency to estimate such costs as part of the RDOF record.

Continue USF support for maintenance and ongoing service costs to CAF recipients in areas where there's no RDOF winner, Cincinnati Bell said. AT&T supports a seventh year of funding for CAF phase 2 recipients.

Reject ILEC requests for CAF support beyond the time frame in the rules, NCTA said: "There is no public interest benefit that would justify extending the exclusive windfall." If states impose carrier-of-last-resort obligations on the ILECs, it added, funding requirements should come from there rather than federal support.

Reject calls for a bidding credit for CAF incumbents, America’s Communications Association said, because it would be "antithetical" to RDOF's goal of competitive bidding. ACA asked to increase performance requirements over time, and adopt principles to facilitate state broadband program engagement.

CenturyLink again said the FCC shouldn't mandate subscribership performance. It could punish providers that fully deploy the requisite service but remain unable to draw enough customers, said the telco.

NTCA disagreed. "The high-cost program is not just about network availability," NTCA said, but "services that are reasonably comparable in quality and price to those available in urban areas." The group said the FCC-proposed subscription metric of 70 percent is "unreasonable and unachievable," and suggested 35 percent, "measured only after six years."