Despite objections over underlying broadband data, the FCC adopted its procedures public notice for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction (Auction 904), which aims to provide up to $16 billion of support for 25/3 Mbps or higher broadband speeds starting October 29, 2020. The short-form application window will open beginning July 1 and close July 15, 2020. The public notice has not yet been released, but the FCC announcement of these dates in a news release demonstrates the FCC’s commitment to keeping to its ambitious auction timeline for 2020. Auctions 105 and 107 for CBRS and C-band mid-band spectrum are scheduled for July and December 2020, respectively. The $4.4 billion RDOF Phase II–which would rely on precise, granular broadband coverage data from the FCC’s new Digital Opportunity Data Collection–has yet to be scheduled.
