FCC Mapping Rules Draw Fresh Criticism Amid $20.4B Disbursal

Stakeholder reactions to the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund have been mixed. The new FCC money will be divvied up in two phases, with the first distributing the majority of the funds, $16 billion, to Census blocks where data shows no service is available. What some stakeholders take issue with, however, is that the FCC is using Form 477 data, which has driven its funding in the past but has also been widely criticized. A top point of contention is that within this data, if a Census block has a single household with high-speed Internet, the entire area is counted as served. Rebecca Dilg, rural community and outreach manager for the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, is aware of situations in Utah where stakeholders wanted to pursue FCC funding. In one case involving a Census block that covered dozens of square miles, developers couldn’t go after any money because of a single served household. “I couldn’t help but be concerned [about the Census block rule] and wanting to look at it a little more,” Dilg said. “You look at Census blocks in Utah or the entire West compared to the East. I mean, it’s completely different. We have this wide expanse.”