Connect America Fund Expands Broadband to Up to 600K Homes, Businesses

Up to 600,000 homes and small businesses that lack broadband will get access to this basic necessity as a result of additional support from the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund.

Providers in 44 states and Puerto Rico requested over $385 million from the Fund – which will be matched with hundreds of millions of their own dollars in many areas – to quickly expand broadband infrastructure to rural communities in every region of the nation. Deployment must be completed within three years. Currently, about 15 million U.S. residents, mostly rural, lack access to broadband and the opportunities it provides. This second round of funding from Phase I of the Connect America Fund marks the continuation of the most significant public-private effort in history to ensure that every American home and business has access to broadband by the end of the decade, which will spur economic growth and boost the nation’s global competitiveness.