The FCC said that 23 broadband providers in 32 states have been authorized to receive over $1.2 billion in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money, the largest funding round so far, the FCC pointed out Friday.
The money will provide broadband service to over 1 million locations, said the FCC.
The commission has also launched the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan to better track compliance with the FCC's universal service high-cost programs, including RDOF.
The plan includes more audits and verification of those getting the money (double the number of audits from last year and with additional on-site audits) and making public the results of its verifications, audits and speed and latency testing.
In its RDOF auction, the FCC allocated $20 billion for 1) rural broadband buildouts ($16 billion) and 2) unserved areas ($4 billion) over the next 10 years.
Carriers bid on how economically they could deliver service that met FCC speed and build-out metrics. The money is for fixed voice and broadband service to unserved, high-cost, areas at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.
The FCC has taken some criticism for handing out the RDOF billions of dollars before it collects better broadband availability data. ■
