FCC seems to make higher-level point with denial of RDOF waiver requests

The Federal Communications Commission has denied waiver requests from Mediacom Wireless of Florida LLC (and a related entity in Georgia) and Consolidated Communications related to the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction. The FCC said that it did not find good cause to grant either RDOF waiver. However, it seems that the agency sought to make a point beyond judging the merits of the requests: The idea seems to be that RDOF was structured to minimize the number of petitions that would be submitted by establishing rules in which funding generally would be forthcoming. “[T]he 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,” the first paragraph of the decision reads. “Nonetheless, we address these particular petitions, in part, in an effort to reiterate that point and emphasize that circumstances beyond a carrier’s control is a very high bar.”