The FCC has released the fifth public notice of authorization of bids in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Among those authorized are Windstream (in 14 states) and Cincinnati Bell (in Kentucky and Ohio). In all, 51 entities – often LLCs and DBAs of the same corporate parent – holding 2,521 winning bids were authorized.
Winning bids in the auction, which allocated $9.2 billion, must prove viability before funds are released to them. The process for doing so is a joint effort of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics.
Winning bidders submit their long-form application. Those who pass muster are put on the “ready to authorize” list. These companies have about two weeks to provide a letter of credit and a bankruptcy code opinion letter. If no issues arise, the company is deemed to be authorized and funding is released.
The other companies with high numbers of authorized bids include Aptitude Internet LLC, ECO Services LLC, Midcontinent Communications, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative and Wave Rural Connect, LLC.
The full list of organizations whose bids were authorized:
- Altamaha Electric Membership
- Anza Electric Cooperative
- Aptitude Internet LCC
- Basconi Mutual Telephone Co.
- Cincinnati Bell
- Conexon Connect LLC
- Coosa Valley Technologies
- Covington Electric Cooperative
- East Mississippi Connect LLC
- Eco Services LLC
- First Light Fiber
- GoSEMO LLC
- Hamilton Country Telephone County Telephone Co-Op
- Hamilton Long Distance Company
- Hamilton Telephone Company
- Heart of the Catskills Comm. dba MTC Cable
- KINEX TELECOM Inc.
- Kosciusko Connect LLC
- Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative
- Midcontinent Communications
- Midwest Data Center Inc.
- MSEC Communications LLC
- New Hampshire Electric Cooperative Inc., Inc.
- OEConnect LLC
- PD Fiber LLC
- Peoples Mutual Telephone Company
- Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.
- Progressive Cooperative Communications Services
- Reservation Telephone Cooperative
- Richland-Grant
- RiverStreet Communications of North Carolina, Inc.
- Roanoke Connect Holdings Inc.
- Socket Tetecom LLC
- TurboNet Technologies Inc.
- Valor Telecommunications of Texas, LLC DBA Windstr
- Volt Broadband LLC
- Wave Rural Connect, LLC
- WeConnect Communications Inc.
- Wilkes Communications
- Windstream of Alabama, LLC
- Windstream Georgia Communications LLC
- Windstream Iowa Communications
- Windstream Kentucky East, LLC
- Windstream Lakedale, Inc.
- Windstream Mississippi, LLC
- Windstream Missouri, LCC
- Windstream Nebraska Inc.
- Windstream North Carolina, LLC
- Windstream South Carolina, LLC
- Windstream Western Reserve, LLC
- Yucca Telecommunications Systems Inc.
in December, the FCC said that it was ready to authorize more than $1 billion in RDOF funding, including winning bids from Windstream, Ziply, and Hawaiian Telcom.
