Verizon Again Declines CAF Funding But AT&T Accepts

For the second year in a row, Verizon again declined funding from the Connect America Fund (CAF) program aimed at covering some of the costs of bringing broadband to customers in high-cost areas of its local landline service territory that cannot get broadband today. But AT&T, which also declined funding last year and which has considerably more rural lines than Verizon, said it would accept up to $100 million in CAF funding.

According to an AT&T executive blog post, AT&T was willing to accept funding this year because it felt that “uncertainty about some of the obligations associated with acceptance of CAF money” have now been addressed. It may also be because funding was opened up to customers that cannot get service at rates of 3 Mbps downstream, expanding AT&T's potential customer base. The telecom company is focused entirely on locations that lack fixed broadband service of at least 768 kbps and is offering to deploy broadband to approximately 129,000 such homes, which include more rural lines. It’s not surprising, however, that Verizon again declined CAF funding. Verizon has a thriving wireless business and the carrier likely wants to focus its investment dollars in that market, rather than in the less promising rural broadband market.