Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order, February 7, 2020
Available Support
Total RDOF support is $20.4 billion to be awarded over 10 years.
Phase I will distribute up to $16 billion to provide broadband service to census blocks that
are wholly unserved at 25/3 Mbps speeds.
The remaining $4.4 billion will be available in Phase II after the FCC has implemented
polygon shapefile broadband reporting to determine unserved areas.
RDOF Phase I support will not be available where 25/3 Mbps service has been funded
through the RUS ReConnect program or other similar federal or state broadband programs.
Competitive Bidding
RDOF support will be awarded through competitive bidding with an auction later in 2020.
Reserve prices will be set based on the FCC’s cost model.
o Tribal and unserved census blocks (lacking 10/1 Mbps service) get a preference through an
additional $10 per location added to the available reserve price.
There will be four performance tiers:
o Minimum tier – 25/3 Mbps speed with higher of 250 GB or U.S. average usage cap
o Baseline tier – 50/5 Mbps speed with higher of 250 GB or U.S. average usage cap
o Above baseline tier – 100/20 Mbps with 2 TB usage cap
o Gigabit tier – 1 Gbps/100 Mbps with 2 TB usage cap
There are two latency requirement options:
o Low latency – 100 ms or less
o High latency – 750 ms or less
Preference will be given to higher speed and lower latency bids.
Once the “clearing round” is reached, where the total of all bids is at or below the $16 billion
budget, support will be awarded to bids with the highest speeds and lowest latency in an area.
Bidding requirements:
o Submit a pre-auction short-form application with information on ownership; types of
technology; technical and financial qualification certifications; operational history;
eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status; access to spectrum; and due diligence
certification.
A bidder does not need to be an ETC to participate in the auction but must become an
ETC prior to receiving support.
o Winning bidders will submit a long-form application with more detailed information on
ownership and technical system design; certifications of financial and technical
capability, compliance with public interest obligations, and availability of funds; proof of
ETC designation; and letters of credit.
Buildout Requirements
RDOF recipients must build out to 40% of the required locations by the end of the third full
calendar year of funding, and to an additional 20% in each subsequent year.
o If there are more locations in the eligible census blocks than reflected in the FCC’s data
the provider is responsible for building out to 100% of those locations by the end of the
eighth year of support.
o If the number of locations in the eligible census blocks is less than 65% of the FCC’s
number support will be reduced on a pro rata basis.