FCC Reminds Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Support Recipients of Upcoming Milestones and Notification Requirement

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) provided guidance to Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support recipients regarding the obligation of all recipients to meet the upcoming third-year or fourth-year service milestones. For those RDOF carriers authorized to receive RDOF funding in 2021, the fourth-year service milestone requires building out to at least 60% of that support recipient’s RDOF locations. For those RDOF carriers authorized to receive RDOF funding in 2022 and 2023, the third-year service milestone requires building out to at least 40% of that support recipient’s RDOF locations. The Bureau reminded all RDOF carriers that for reporting in the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal, these carriers have transitioned from reporting the geographic coordinates and addresses associated with the locations where they offer service meeting their high-cost support requirements to reporting the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) Location IDs associated with these locations based on a list of eligible Location IDs for each carrier. The Bureau also reminded RDOF recipients to notify the Bureau if they believe they cannot meet the third-year or fourth-year service milestone. Unique to the RDOF program, if a 2022 or 2023-authorized support recipient has not made a notification that it cannot meet its 40% service milestone by March 1, 2026 and has deployed to fewer than 20 percent of the required number of locations by the end of 2025, the recipient will immediately be in default and subject to support recovery.