RDOF Recipients to Face More Scrutiny

FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction recipients will undergo more scrutiny in 2022 with increased audits and verifications as part of the agency's "rural broadband accountability plan," said a news release Friday. It's "part of an ongoing effort to increase accountability and to build upon existing audit and verification processes performed by the Universal Service Administrative Co.," said a fact sheet. The FCC also announced that more than $1.2 billion in RDOF support is ready to be authorized for 23 providers, as expected (see 2201270030).

The plan changes procedures. Checks this year will double from 2021, with some on-site based on "random selection." USAC will also do more verifications before a program's first deployment milestone. Largest dollar recipients will be subject to "an on-site audit in at least one state," and higher-risk recipients will be subject to "additional audits and verifications." Results will be made public on USAC's website.

The $1.2 billion in RDOF support is the largest funding announcement to date and will go toward serving more than 1 million locations. Charter, Pearl River Valley Communications, and SVEConnect were among the providers ready to be authorized. Cable One, GeoLinks, Cox, LTD Broadband, Mediacom and MidCo were among providers with bids in default.

The plan "will speed up our audit and verification processes and for the first time make public the results of verifications, audits, and speed and latency testing," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: "These new measures will help ensure that the providers we fund in this program will do the job.” The FCC didn't provide additional details.

NTCA is "supportive of performance testing" and "there's value in providing greater transparency and accountability," said Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs Mike Romano (see 2012210026). The proposal is "several bullet points" right now and there are "some devils in the details to figure out who is a higher-risk recipient," Romano said. He noted that audits can take a long time, so "the execution will be really important."

"This should be very welcome news to those that pay for USF programs for high-cost areas ... as well as those that benefit from such programs," emailed USF consultant Billy Jack Gregg. How effective the measures are will "ultimately depend on how the FCC actually administers the program," Gregg said.

The announcement is "progress" but "my main concern remains related to how long it takes to get accountability," emailed Christopher Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance director-community broadband networks: "I continue to have doubts about the capacity of some of these ISPs to deliver on what they have committed to and I worry that if it takes us [four] years to prove that, the residents and businesses in those areas will really have suffered."