The FCC’s Connect America Fund has authorized more...
The FCC’s Connect America Fund has authorized more than $255 million in funding for broadband access to nearly 400,000 homes and businesses in rural areas of 41 states, said an FCC news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1kg3yp0). This brings the total authorized…
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from the first phase of CAF to nearly $403 million, said the FCC. AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications and Windstream will use the funds in rural portions of their service areas, where broadband expansion was unlikely “absent support from the Connect America Fund,” it said. In August, the five carriers identified 563,767 locations where they wanted to use the funds to reach customers unserved by broadband, but the eligibility of some of those locations was challenged, said the FCC. “Access to modern broadband networks is essential in the information age,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Yet 15 million Americans live in areas where they can’t get wireline broadband no matter how much they want it. These funds will jump-start broadband access in areas that would otherwise be bypassed by the digital economy.” CenturyLink is receiving almost $40 million of the $54 million that the company announced that it would accept from CAF phase I, round 2 money earlier this year, said Steve Davis, the company’s executive vice president-public policy and government relations, in a statement. Frontier will receive approximately $58 million in funds for broadband expansion to 95,000 locations in 23 states over the next three years from Phase 1 support, said Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter in a statement: “We welcome the partnership with Chairman Wheeler and the FCC to carry out our shared goal of broadband expansion in rural America. The CAF funding allows Frontier to accelerate our already robust broadband build-out and network upgrade program. Today’s announcement allows us to continue to invest aggressively in 2014 in rural America."