Terrific Digital Opportunities Ahead…But Some Tweaks Are Needed To Prevent Storm Clouds In The Future

Here are just a few pieces that we think are worthy of further consideration and some modification before the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) order becomes final.

1. One of the issues we’re flagging is the proposal to inject a 50/5 Mbps speed tier into the auction. While we understand and support the goal of giving as many Americans as possible at least some level of service, we believe adding another speed tier that is below the average speeds enjoyed by urban Americans does not advance the cause of “reasonable comparability” as required by law.  
2. Another issue we’ve raised with the Federal Communications Commission is how letters of credit are established to assure performance by winning bidders in the RDOF. The FCC should tailor the letter of credit requirements to the risk presented, tracking how much must be kept tied up by those letters to the level of performance of each party and the amount of Universal Service Fund (USF) funding the FCC has at risk at any given time.
3. Finally, and most importantly, we have highlighted to the FCC potential “storm clouds on the horizon.”  In particular, the RDOF item contemplates that any area where a USF recipient has already built high-speed broadband won’t be eligible for the auction. In a world where the only goal is to build networks, that makes sense.  But in a world where the law is focused not just on network availability, but ultimately on the availability of reasonably comparable services at reasonably comparable rates, this view misses the mark. We ask the FCC to take a look at what support might be needed to sustain reasonably comparable service at reasonably comparable rates int hose areas that are already served only because the networks there were built leveraging USF support.

[Shirley Bloomfield is chief executive officer of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association.]