On March 5, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) issued a public notice seeking input on a recently submitted proposal to implement an “amnesty period” for internet service providers (ISPs) who may default on their deployment commitments under funding awards received through the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) or Connect America Fund (CAF) Auctions.
The RDOF and CAF programs fund the deployment of high-speed broadband internet and voice service networks in areas that would otherwise be too costly to be adequately served by the market (typically, rural areas).
If adopted as proposed, the grant of amnesty would allow ISPs currently receiving RDOF or CAF funding to serve locations at a 100/20 Mbps speed that cannot or do not intend to meet their buildout commitments to relinquish all or part of their funded areas without facing the full extent of the default penalties applicable to RDOF and CAF recipients.
If adopted those areas subject to default under the amnesty proposal could then potentially become eligible for funding under states’ Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Programs. BEAD is a separate funding program focused on the construction of infrastructure to increase high-speed internet adoption, specifically in areas that are currently unserved or served at a speed under 100/20 Mbps.
Comments and reply comments in response to the public notice are due March 26 and April 9, respectively.
The proposal that WCB may consider was articulated in a letter sent by 69 ISPs, trade associations, state and local officials, school districts, unions, and civil society organizations to the FCC on February 28. In that letter, the stakeholders requested the FCC adopt a one-month “amnesty period” for RDOF and certain CAF award recipients. Specifically, the letter asks the FCC to grant an emergency petition filed in 2023 by certain RDOF award recipients to allow recipients that “cannot or choose not to fulfill their obligations” to relinquish all or a portion of their awarded footprint funding with no or minimized default penalties. The letter also urges the FCC to conside
