FCC announces over $1.2 billion for rural broadband, and a new program to make sure it's spent properly

"The Federal Communications Commission is ready to authorize more than $1.2 billion in funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Announced in 2019, the 10-year program seeks to expand broadband internet access across rural America. In an announcement spotted by The Verge, the FCC says the funding wave will see 23 broadband providers bring internet service to more than 1 million locations across 32 states," I. Bonifacic reports for Engadget. "Additionally, and maybe even more importantly, the FCC also announced the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, a program to ensure recipients of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund are properly spending the funding they receive from the public."

"The commission announced in July 2021 that it wanted to "clean up" the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund after it discovered that internet service providers had accepted funds to deploy broadband in urban areas or in places where high-speed internet was already available. Those companies were told to either justify their bids or withdraw their funding requests," Nathaniel Mott reports for PC.

The program aims to increase oversight for broadband funding recipients by doing twice as many audits as last year and doing more on-site audits (especially for large or "high-risk" recipients), Mott reports. Also, for the first time, the results of verifications, audits, and speed and latency performance testing will be publicly available online.