FCC Denies Mediacom, Consolidated RDOF Waivers

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) denied Mediacom Wireless of Florida LLC and Mediacom Wireless of Georgia LLC’s (collectively, Mediacom) request for waiver of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) requirement to certify that they offered service to 40% of the Connect America Cost Model (CAM)-estimated number of locations by December 31, 2025 and/or an extension of the service milestone until June 30, 2026 to complete deployment to 40% of the required number of locations. The Bureau also denied Consolidated Communications, Inc.’s (Consolidated) request to remove a census block group (CBG) from its Texas RDOF service area so that it can come into compliance with the requirement to offer service to 60% of the model-estimated number of locations by December 31, 2025.  The Bureau finds that Mediacom and Consolidated did not demonstrate that good cause supports waiving the FCC’s requirements.  Furthermore, the non-compliance framework the FCC adopted for the RDOF was designed to avoid altogether the burden of filing and addressing petitions such as these—carriers continue to receive the majority of funding except in the most serious of shortfalls, and they can quickly receive all funding by catching up on buildout.  Nonetheless, the Bureau addressed these particular petitions, in part, in an effort to reiterate that point and emphasize that circumstances beyond a carrier’s control are a very high bar.