RDOF Auction Procedures Item to Be OK'd by All GOP FCC Members

At least the three FCC GOP members will approve a public notice on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund procedures at Friday's meeting that would authorize an Oct. 22 auction date for the first phase of the USF program, industry and agency officials said in interviews this week. It's less clear how much pushback it will get from Democratic commissioners. At last month's meeting, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called the fast pace of the RDOF rulemaking, before the FCC had a chance to correct widely disputed broadband mapping data, "an election year bonanza" (see 2001300001).

If the pending draft item is approved as written, comments would close in April. That leaves six months after that to release a list of eligible bidding areas, allow sufficient time for interested parties to challenge those areas named as wholly unserved, plus time for carriers to analyze the eligible areas and prepare their bids.

Don't expect the Oct. 22 auction date to move, industry officials say (see 2002210004). Chairman Ajit Pai has made RDOF a top priority this year (see 2001080049).

In a letter Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., wrote Pai urging him to "revise the aggressive timeline outlined" in the RDOF order "and postpone the initial auction until after the eligibility maps can be challenged and verified. If we learned no other lessons from the Mobility Fund II (MF-II) experience, we should have at least learned the importance of getting the maps right before we award billions of dollars. Unfortunately, instead of learning from the failures of the past, your proposal seems intent on repeating them."

“Chairman Pai is not going to delay bringing digital opportunity to millions of Americans, including numerous West Virginians, whom we know lack access to high-speed broadband," an FCC spokesperson emailed Thursday. "He is committed to beginning Phase I of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund this fall.”

"I'm sure they thought long and hard about that date, and they have plenty of time to do what they need to meet that date," wireline telecom consultant Genny Morelli said Wednesday. Most recently president of now-shuttered ITTA, Morelli has concerns about launching the RDOF auctions before the agency updates its broadband maps. The commission believes it "can work around it," she said. "That ship has sailed. There's nothing we can do about it now."

As described in the RDOF order and draft procedures notice, the challenge process for Phase I eligible service areas will be limited and doesn't appear to threaten to delay the auction. Perhaps more of a wild card is what happens if states challenge the FCC over last-minute language in the RDOF order that would restrict USF support to areas that had already received subsidies from state broadband programs (see 2002070031). Morelli said she has heard some states are contemplating taking action to get more clarification on that issue or a modification of the order.

The California Public Utilities Commission wants "further clarification" in the procedures item for auction 904. The CPUC wants clarity on "the eligibility, for RDOF funding, of areas that have received funding from state broadband programs," said a posting Thursday in docket 19-126. "State-funded broadband investments should receive credit and recognition as positive weighing factors in the reverse auction framework," the CPUC told FCC Wireline Bureau and Rural Broadband Auction Task Force staff. It recommended minimum bidding areas be designated at the census block group level rather than the census tract level because larger, low-density tracts would be challenges for smaller firms. The state agency asked its federal counterpart to address how carriers could establish bidding consortiums, related timetables for short-form filing, and prohibited communications among bidders.

If the auction procedure language is modified in response to industry suggestions, changes are expected to be limited because docket 19-126 has remained light this month. SpaceX wants the commission to revisit a proposal that prohibits low-earth satellite service providers from bidding on low-latency or high-performance tiers. The Wireless ISP Association wants the draft to keep a question on whether the FCC should share information on its lowest weighted bids to help inform carriers on where to place their bids in subsequent auction rounds.