The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) has granted a petition filed by Charter Communications, Inc. to remove over 2,100 census blocks from Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) eligibility in the upcoming RDOF Phase I auction (Auciton 904. Charter argued that it plans to deploy service to locations both before Auciton 904 in October 2020 and by September 2021 pursuant to the terms of a New York State settlement. Charter argues that these deployments would take place before an RDOF subsidized entity would be expected to even begin building. The Bureau found that special circumstances exist here to grant Charter’s request and that doing so is in the public interest as it would maximize RDOF support amounts available to wholly underserved areas of the country.
