Thousands of RDOF Bids to Be Withdrawn After FCC Letter
Just 30 of 197 providers filed responses to letters from the FCC asking them to review certain census blocks provisionally won during the RDOF Phase I auction and consider withdrawing those bids by its Monday deadline. Most said they're willing to accept the offer if the commission agrees to waive any penalties.
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Winning RDOF providers agreed to withdraw thousands of bids for census block groups in more than a dozen states, our analysis found. California, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas had the most bids withdrawn. Providers said the identified locations were either already served or unpopulated, in requests that the commission waive the base forfeiture amount of $3,000 per census block group. The FCC is “evaluating the responses,” emailed a spokesperson Wednesday.
LTD, which won $1.3 billion to service 528,088 locations, said it's willing to withdraw its bids (see 2012070039). The FCC identified more than 3,000 census blocks that LTD provisionally won. It agreed to withdraw more than 800 bids for dozens of locations in counties in California, among them Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Orange and San Francisco. LTD also agreed to withdraw nearly 800 in Illinois, with most locations in Cook County. In Iowa, the company agreed to withdraw dozens of bids in Des Moines, Polk and Scott County. CEO Corey Hauer declined to comment.
Others agreed to withdraw a subset of bids listed in the FCC’s letter. Cox, which provisionally won $6.6 million to serve 8,212 locations, said it will no longer pursue support for 104 of its locations in question. It agreed to withdraw bids in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties in California, and Louisiana's Jefferson and Orleans counties. Cox didn’t comment. Hughes Network Systems, which won $1.3 million to serve 3,678 locations in Rhode Island, also agreed to withdraw 142 bids in every county, after determining the areas were either already served or unpopulated. Frontier agreed to withdraw 37 bids in California, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.
Starry Internet agreed to withdraw its bids for 121 of the hundreds of census blocks listed in the letter it received. It said it will no longer pursue support for bids in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. The company "conducted further analysis" of the census blocks in the letter it received and identified a subset of locations it was willing to withdraw support for, said Virginia Lam Abrams, senior vice president-government affairs. Starry "shares the commission's goal to ensure that limited RDOF support is efficiently targeted to areas most in need of robust connectivity," Abrams said.
Several providers told the FCC they will keep their bids in question. Consolidated Communications "expects that it will be able to fulfill its RDOF public interest obligations," it said in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 19-126. It won more than $58 million to serve 27,021 locations in Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas and Vermont. The commission "has already ensured that RDOF support will not be wasted" when it "acknowledged" the eligible census blocks during the auction because they were based on 2011 census data "may no longer accurately reflect current conditions," it said. "Consolidated remains committed to its RDOF builds," emailed Senior Vice President-Legislative and Regulatory Michael Shultz: "We did the appropriate due diligence and believe these census blocks are correct. We intend to continue building to all identified locations as planned."
Conexon asked for additional information before it made a decision, in a letter posted Tuesday. It said the letter was “a departure from past commission practice and something of a surprise.” BEK Communications and LocalTel previously told us they won't consider the offer (see 2108040054).
The FCC “didn’t do their homework” before providers bid during RDOF Phase I, said CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson in an interview. Providers that choose to decline the FCC’s offer are now making the long-form application review process longer, Dawson said.