The$16 billion Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction opens for bidding on October 29, in what promises to be a hotly contested and lengthy process that could easily last until the end of the year. This is the first and largest round of funding from the RDOF program, which is expected to allocate a total of$20.4 billion over the next ten years or more.

The RDOF auction is similar in process, if not scale, to the 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) auction, in which 173 organizations qualified to bid for a share of$1.5 billion. By the end of CAF II, 103 bidders won$1.49 billion to provide fixed broadband and voice services to over 700,000 locations in 45 states. As such, the CAF II auction results provide a ready roadmap for what to expect, from the standpoint of the process as well as competition, in the RDOF Phase I auction process.

The RDOF auction promises to provide more of everything that service providers experienced in CAF II