Which carriers received the most rural broadband funding in 2017?
February 5, 2018
So which US-based providers got the most amount of federal rural broadband funding in 2017?
- AT&T accespted $427 million annually in Connect America Fund (CAF-II) from the Federal Communications Commission. The funding is aimed at helping AT&T reach 2.2 million rural locations in 18 of the 21 states in its operating territory with broadband services.
- CenturyLink accepted $500 million in CAF-II funding, enabling it deliver broadband services to about 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states over the next six years. The company accepted 33 CAF-II statewide offers to deliver Internet speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps to locations in FCC-designated, high-cost census blocks.
- In 2015, Frontier accepted $283 million in annual CAF-II support that it says will enable it to build out broadband service to over 650,000 rural locations that it could not economically reach before. Already, Frontier is making progress, reporting that it now provides broadband to more than 331,000 and small businesses in its CAF-eligible areas—and the company has improved speeds to nearly 875,000 additional homes and businesses. The service provider also was the recipient of CAF-II funding set aside by Verizon when it purchased the company's assets in California ($32 million in CAF-II funding), Texas ($16.5 million) and Florida.
- Windstream accepted $175 million of CAF-II funding to extend broadband services to nearly 400,000 rural households across 17 states.
- Verizon recently broke free and received $82.7 million in state and federal funds to bring broadband to unserved parts of rural New York. Most of the funding—$70.7 million—will come from the new NY Broadband Program, with an additional $12 million coming from CAF. Verizon will also contribute $36 million toward the project, which will bring service to more than 15,500 locations.
Which carriers received the most rural broadband funding in 2017?