The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote later this month on rules governing the distribution of more than $20 billion in rural broadband funding.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the proposed regulations on Wednesday. The funding is intended not only for traditional rural broadband providers but also to expand eligibility to companies that were previously excluded from subsidies, including wireless carriers, electric cooperatives, and cable operators.
The support will be disbursed over a ten-year period with the goal of narrowing the digital divide in rural communities and creating more economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities for residents.
In a statement, Pai said:
“This new fund would target rural areas across the country where residents currently lack access to adequate broadband and would deploy high-speed broadband to millions of rural Americans in an efficient and effective manner.”
The proposed rules outline a two-phase auction structure.
Phase one would dedicate $16 billion to locations that currently have no access to high-speed broadband. The remaining funds would be reserved for phase two and directed to areas that have partial broadband availability.
Rather than awarding support to the highest bidders, this auction would favor the lowest bids. The intent is to enable cost-effective deployment of broadband services in rural areas rather than to maximize government revenue.
Another provision would give priority to providers offering faster speeds. When two bidders submit equivalent offers, preference would go to the applicant proposing the higher service speed.
The auction has drawn relatively bipartisan backing. Some Democrats, however, have urged a delay until the FCC updates its coverage maps, arguing those maps overstate service availability in many locations. FCC officials counter that phase one targets areas lacking any broadband access—an issue they say is not dependent on the disputed maps.
“We don’t want millions of rural Americans to wait longer than necessary to obtain the economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities provided by high-speed broadband,” Pai said in a blog post.
Phase one of the auction is expected to take place later this year, and the FCC will vote on the rules for the auction later this month.
(Image Credit: Ajit Pai by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0)