Commissioner Brendan Carr made headlines earlier this week when he denounced the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to deny Starlink $885.5 million in broadband subsidy support from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction. In an exclusive interview with Fierce, Carr discussed his thoughts on the future of RDOF and how unification around a single coverage map could maximize efforts to push broadband to all corners of the country.
The RDOF Phase I auction was designed to be the first of two auctions which would allocate a total pot of more than $20 billion to expand broadband in hard-to-reach areas of the country. Phase I focused on completely unserved locations and doled out a total of $9.2 billion, though the FCC recently rejected winning bids from Starlink and LTD Broadband totaling more than $2.1 billion. That means there is still around $13 billion on the table for a Phase II auction, which would focus on remaining unserved locations as well as underserved areas.
While the idea of a Phase II auction made perfect sense when RDOF was conceived, Carr said the need for a second round is less clear in light of other federal broadband funding efforts, such as the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
“It’s a more complicated question today in terms of RDOF Phase II than had you asked me that question as we completed RDOF [Phase] I,” he said. “I’m open-minded at this point. I’d welcome a chance to hear from stakeholders about it. Some people have put forward this idea that more money should be put towards 5G mobile wireless now that we have all these heavy fixed programs like BEAD.”
That said, if the FCC does decide to push ahead with a Phase II auction, Carr said he’s open to making changes to auction rules to avoid a repeat of the Starlink decision.
“I don’t have a problem with taking a look at some heavier vetting on the front end of the auction,” he said. “I also don’t have a problem with revisiting the weighting system that we used with respect to fiber and fixed wireless and satellite. I do think it’s fundamentally important, as we decided back then, to have an approach that allows a range of technologies to compete.” While fiber is the gold standard, he noted deployments “take time” and that should be considered against the ability of fixed wireless and satellite technology’s ability to “cross the digital divide overnight.”
The original RDOF auction received a lot of criticism for the quality of its eligibility maps. While that problem is already being addressed through the FCC’s ongoing map update, Carr said a potential Phase II auction – and indeed any other funding effort – would face a different mapping problem. Specifically, he pointed out there are currently at least 133 federal funding programs being administered by 15 different agencies using different maps. That’s a problem that needs to be rectified, he said.
To the extent possible, “we all need to be driving these funding decisions through that [forthcoming] FCC map,” he said. Such a move would help coordinate federal efforts around broadband and avoid overbuilding. “I think if we’re all trying to get to the same place, we should all be using the same map. I think it’s concerning from an ability to coordinate, to track funds, to extend these dollars as far as possible if everyone starts scattering to the winds and using their own separate maps.”
Asked whether overbuilding is actually a problem or a boon for competition, Carr argued priority number one for federal dollars should be connecting all unserved locations rather than diverting funds to overbuild or update existing service.
Carr also advocated for more Congressional and departmental oversight of where federal money is being spent on broadband. Coordinated, careful scrutiny is required to ensure funds are being spent appropriately, he said. But that kind of supervision is lacking today.
Agencies like the Departments of the Treasury, Agriculture and Education which are distributing money for broadband should be providing “regular updates” about how funds are distributed, where funded projects are located and what performance is being offered. However, “I’m not sure that we have any insight that I’m aware of into the status of that,” he said.
“I think there certainly should be a role for Congress as well,” Carr continued. “I would welcome a finer-tooth comb review from the House and the Senate into all the different broadband programs. Because we have the money to deliver, we just need to implement it right.”