Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Faced with Issues

The Pocahontas County Broadband Council called off its scheduled August 24^th meeting because of scheduling issues among its members, however Ruthana Beasley and Amy Truesdale provided an update on the broadband projects in the county.

One of the more interesting comments in this update cited an article in the August 3, 2023 PC Magazine as saying that the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is facing trouble from a number of the internet providers who bid on and won the broadband service installation rights to exclusive areas of the country. The FCC will be awarding 20 billion dollars nationwide to those companies to build and provide broadband inside the areas they bid on and were awarded by the FCC. The federal government has restricted the use of any other federal funding to build broadband in those areas by other internet service providers. However, according the PC Magazine, a large coalition of internet service providers, who call themselves the “Coalition of RDOF Winners,” are now asking for additional RDOF money because inflation has raised the cost of constructing the broadband service that they committed to build in their bid areas. Some companies are also asking for the right to get out of their RDOF commitments altogether without suffering financial penalties from the FCC. Unless the FCC allows these bailouts, those companies would face tens of thousands of dollars in penalties if they default on their bids.  It is unknown at this time how the FCC will respond to these challenges.

In Pocahontas County, two Internet Service Providers bid on and won portions of the county under RDOF.  Frontier Communications and CityNet, with Frontier won the majority of the populated areas of the county. It is not known if either of these companies are part of the “Coalition of RDOF Winners.”

The broadband update also provided an updated timeline for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Project in the county. Because CityNet is still working to get the pole connections set up with First Energy wrapped up in the next 30 days, the new schedule has actual construction now starting in the summer of 2024.

Regarding the NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the state Broadband Council’s Digital Equity Plan’s comment period is over, and those comments will go to the feds for review as the next steps in this process.

The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides vouchers for low-income households to get internet service is set to run out of funds in 2024. It was suggested that people reach out to their legislators to have this program refunded. The council will discuss sending letters to legislators about this at their next meeting on September 7^th.

The Pocahontas County commissioners signed letters to Frontier and CityNet asking them to provide updates on the progress of their RDOF projects in the county.

The fiber map on the Broadband Council’s webpage has been updated -see:  https://pocahontascountybroadband.com/