Media Contact: Anne Veigle, (202) 418-0506 anne.veigle@fcc.gov For Immediate Release FCC RELEASES UPDATED LIST OF ELIGIBLE AREAS FOR RURAL DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY FUND PHASE I AUCTION Denies Challenges Lacking Proper Documentation, Including Those Filed by Frontier and FDF Communications, and Grants Charter’s Waiver Request WASHINGTON, June 25, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, Wireline Competition Bureau, and Office of Economics and Analytics today released a Public Notice announcing a list of 5,392,530 unserved locations deemed eligible for bidding in the $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction that begins October 29. The Public Notice updates a preliminary list released March 17, 2020, which was followed by a limited challenge process. “We’re on track and on time with our ambitious schedule to move forward as quickly as possible to get funding out to unserved parts of America and close the digital divide,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We’ve designed this auction with incentives for bidders to build high-performance networks in areas that we know don’t have broadband service so we can bring digital opportunity to millions of rural Americans. Closing the digital divide is my top priority, and it’s even more critical now as so much of American life has moved online, from jobs to telehealth to staying in touch with families and friends. Today’s announcement provides the information companies need to prepare as we move toward the opening of the window on July 1 for bidders to file their applications to participate in the Phase I auction.” The Commission conducted a limited challenge process that gave parties an opportunity to identify by April 10, 2020, census blocks that fell into one of three categories: (1) census blocks that have become served with voice and 25/3 Mbps broadband service since June 30, 2019; (2) census blocks that have been awarded funding by a federal or state broadband subsidy to offer broadband service at 25/3 Mbps or better and for which funding has already been paid or committed; and (3) census blocks within a rate-of-return carrier’s service area where it does not expect to extend broadband in satisfaction of its universal service deployment obligations. Among other decisions, the Task Force, Bureau, and Office denied a challenge filed by Frontier Communications for 16,987 blocks where it claimed it provided service of 25/3 Mbps or better broadband service. Given the numerous and significant concerns in the record regarding the validity of Frontier’s filing, including its own admission that it had misfiled its June 2019 data, errors in its challenge that it sought to revise, and inconsistent explanations for its challenge, the Commission denied Frontier’s challenge. The Commission also denied a challenge filed by FDF Communications to exclude 1,664 census blocks in Missouri and 577 blocks in Arkansas from the eligible bidding areas. Significant concerns were raised in the record about the services that FDF Communications was offering in the areas it challenged. The Commission rejected other challenges by Arrowhead Electric Cooperation, Inland Telephone Company, Northwest Fiber, Edge Broadband, Mobius Communications Company, and LakeNet LLC that sought to exclude areas from the auction. In a separate order, the Bureau granted Charter Communications’ waiver request to exclude 2,127 census blocks in New York from the eligible areas list because the company will deploy broadband in those locations pursuant to a settlement reached with the State of New York. The Task Force, Bureau, and Office also granted most of the challenges that FCC Form 477 filers submitted identifying census blocks that started receiving voice and 25/3 Mbps or better broadband service since June 30, 2019. The final list of eligible areas will be released no later than three weeks prior to the October 29 start date for bidding. Commission staff will closely scrutinize auction applications to ensure that all applicants are proposing to use technologies that will be successful in providing mass market retail broadband to consumers to ensure taxpayer funding is not wasted. Phase II of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will make available at least $4.4 billion, in addition to unallocated funds from Phase I, to target partially served areas using precise, granular broadband coverage data being developed in the Commission’s Digital Opportunity Data Collection proceeding, along with areas not won in the Phase I auction. Communities and individuals with questions about the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund can contact the FCC’s Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force at ruralbroadband@fcc.gov. Service providers seeking information about applying to participate in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction can contact Auction904@fcc.gov. The state-by-state list of updated eligible locations is below: State Name Eligible Locations Alabama 202,369 Arizona 131,949 Arkansas 201,944 California 425,533 Colorado 78,397 Connecticut 3,281 Delaware 7,757 Florida 147,162 Georgia 184,019 Hawaii 8,081 Idaho 40,921 Illinois 166,777 Indiana 162,980 Iowa 55,017 Kansas 46,827 Kentucky 99,315 Louisiana 176,951 Maine 27,967 Maryland 40,406 Massachusetts 29,491 Michigan 253,386 Minnesota 148,718 Mississippi 221,685 Missouri 200,336 Montana 46,156 Nebraska 43,445 Nevada 31,623 New Hampshire 18,243 New Jersey 11,933 New Mexico 64,978 New York 47,024 North Carolina 163,277 North Dakota 3,025 Ohio 191,832 Oklahoma 127,081 Oregon 82,659 Pennsylvania 190,325 Rhode Island 3,428 South Carolina 109,301 South Dakota 10,738 Tennessee 169,750 Texas 310,322 Utah 10,784 Vermont 19,468 Virginia 190,137 Washington 103,155 West Virginia 121,013 Wisconsin 241,341 Wyoming 19,139 ### Media Relations: (202) 418-0500 / ASL: (844) 432-2275 / TTY: (888) 835-5322 / Twitter: @FCC / www.fcc.gov This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).