LTD, Charter, Rural Electric Co-op Consortium Win 39.1% of RDOF Phase I

Three entities won more than $3.6 billion of the $9.2 billion awarded through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction to deploy broadband to more than 10 million Americans, said an FCC Wireline Bureau release Monday. It was below the $16 billion approved by the FCC. LTD Broadband received the largest amount, $1.3 billion to service 528,088 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana, South Dakota, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio and Kansas. Charter won $1.2 billion for 1.06 million locations in Texas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, Oregon, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, Virginia, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, California, Vermont and New Mexico. The Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium gets $1.1 billion for 622,147 locations in Missouri, South Dakota, Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Montana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kentucky, Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, New York, Texas, Ohio, South Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin. California will receive $695 million in rural broadband funding, Mississippi $495 million, Arkansas $424 million, Minnesota $408 million and Illinois $378 million. About 85% of serviced locations will receive gigabit-speed broadband, with the rest getting at least 100/20 Mbps. Winning bidders must submit a post-auction application for support by Jan. 29 and requests to assign some or all of their winning bids to related entities by Dec. 22. With $6.8 billion left over from Phase I, $11.2 billion will now be available for the RDOF Phase II auction, FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry tweeted Monday. “We have looked at the auction as a compelling way for Cable companies, specifically Charter, to expand their footprint with compelling returns,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Monday: “The results of the auction point to a more competitive auction than we expected resulting in fewer subsidies awarded. Charter was the biggest winner, but won fewer markets than we expected.” New Street sees the auction as “an opportunity for Cable to further accelerate subscriber growth.” The Wireless ISP Association seeks “lessons learned that can help improve Phase II of the RDOF auction, which will even more granularly identify and then bring service to those who remain in the digital divide,” emailed Louis Peraertz, vice president-policy.