Consolidated says it will surpass the CAF-II 10/1 Mbps rural broadband requirement

Consolidated Communications said a large portion of its footprint it passes can get 20 Mbps, enabling the company to surpass the Federal Communications Commission’s 10/1 Mbps Connect America Fund-II requirement. To participate in the CAF-II program, service providers had to commit to delivering up to a minimum of 10/1 Mbps to their target set of homes and businesses.

Steve Childers, CFO of Consolidated Communications, told investors during the Drexel Hamilton Telecom, Media & Technology Conference that its long track record in building out networks in rural markets makes it easier to bring higher speeds to harder to reach customers. “We’re already well above what the FCC standard is and we feel like we have been investing in rural America for a number of years,” Childers said. The service provider breaks out broadband availability into three main buckets: Speeds of 20 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps.