On December 7, 2020, the FCC announced 180 winning bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction (Auction 904). Almost 99% of the areas available in the RDOF auction received a winning bid and the total amount of funding awarded was $9.2 billion for 49 states. The non-awarded balance of $6.8 billion will be allocated toward phase two of the RDOF auction. Of the 180 winning bids, 99.7% committed to deploying service at speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, with 85% committing to gigabit broadband.
In Colorado, 76,216 locations were assigned to eight winning bidders, totaling nearly $250 million in support over 10 years:
| Bidder | Assigned Support over 10 Years |
Number of Locations Assigned |
|---|---|---|
|
CenturyLink
|
$7,482,178 | 1,509 |
|
Commnet Wireless, LLC Commnet won $28.4 million for 19,028 locations in 10 states |
$3,368,991 | 785 |
|
Connect Everyone LLC Connect Everyone won $268.9 million for 108,506 locations in 9 states |
$17,106,769 | 5,190 |
|
LTD Broadband LLC LTD Broadband won $1.3 billion for 528,088 locations in 15 states |
$69,016,527 | 11,518 |
|
Resound Networks, LLC ReSound Networks, which won $310.6 million for 219,239 locations in seven states |
$29,530,678 | 11,797 |
|
Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium won $1.1 billion for 618,476 locations in 22 states |
$83,179,165 | 25,255 |
|
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. SpaceX won $885.5 million for 642,925 locations in 35 states |
$39,752,937 | 19,176 |
|
Visionary Communications, Inc. Visionary won $4.4 million for 4,184 locations in two states |
$396,466 | 986 |
| Total | $249,833,710 | 76,216 |
What’s Next?
Providers must submit a long-form application to the FCC in late January 2021, which must include additional information about the company’s qualifications, funding, and technical specifications about their proposed network. If approved, the FCC will authorize funding and the carrier will be required to meet periodic buildout requirements and reach all assigned locations by the end of the sixth year.