Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) projects a consolidated budget of $68.06 million for the federal Universal Service Support Mechanism in 4Q2026. Direct costs for all support mechanisms total $30.53 million. Joint and common costs (including billing, collection, and disbursement activities) total $37.53 million. Universal Service Support Mechanisms include High Cost, Low Income, Rural Health Care, Schools and Libraries, and Connected Care Pilot. 

If you are a school or library seeking E-Rate discounts, a rural health care provider, a Lifeline provider serving low-income households, or a carrier deploying networks with high-cost support, you deal with the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC)—the private, not-for-profit corporation that administers the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF).

Reporting has found that the Federal Communications Commission's multibillion-dollar Universal Service Fund pays for what often amounts to slow internet access for customers who actually no longer use it. Once home to thousands of sailors and their families, the island emptied after the base closed in 1997. While the state estimated the population to be 77 last year, residents themselves put it at closer to two dozen—meaning the federal internet subsidy to the local telecom amounts to about $14,000 a year per person.

Every few years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tells Congress and the public what it intends to do with its authority. The agency's strategic plan is not a rulemaking and creates no legal obligations, but it is the framework around which the FCC builds its annual performance plan and budget request to Congress. The strategic plan also serves as the yardstick against which the agency's own annual performance reports—and outside overseers like the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)—measure whether the FCC did what it said it would do.

Uniti submitted its second quarterly report regarding the status of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund milestone compliance for locations in several states. The company reported on how many new locations in each state were reached with service in the second quarter of 2026:

Safelink Internet submitted a quarterly report regarding its progress toward the 20 percent interim service milestone for its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund authorization in Nevada, Study Area Code 559032. Safelink has deployed and verified qualifying voice and broadband service to 296 locations in its Nevada RDOF service area, approximately 10.86 percent of the locations required by the milestone. Safelink’s broader Nevada fiber construction program, which began in 2021 and reached substantial completion in 2026, covered approximately 14,500 locations in the state.

Skylark Broadband submitted its First Quarterly Compliance Report as subject to Tier 4 non-compliance status under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program for SAC 499029 in the state of New Mexico. Skylark has no newly deployed, geocoded broadband locations to report. Skylark’s total obligation under RDOF for SAC 499029 is 940 broadband serviceable locations, with a 40 percent interim milestone requiring certification of 376 deployed locations by March 1, 2026. Zero locations have been certified as deployed. 

Conexon Connect submitted compliance reports for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund locations in Mississippi, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona, Tennessee, and Illinois. Conexon Connect delayed its RDOF buildout in some states until state broadband offices finalized Broadband, Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) Program funding decisions. This delay, the company believes, was prudent because Conexon Connect’s network would require modification to account for any new BEAD-funded areas.

Continental Divide Electric Cooperative (CDEC) submitted an interim build-out shortfall notification dated Jan. 5, 2026. In accordance with Federal Communications Commission rules and CDEC’s Tier 3 compliance gap status, the Company submitted its first quarterly report regarding progress towards complying with its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund obligations in New Mexico. CDEC reports that, since Dec.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2026 will be 0.388 or 38.8 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the FCC.