Why is TDS So Keen on Extending A-CAM? And What’s at Stake for the FCC?

TDS has been taking every opportunity to talk up the Federal Communications Commission's Alternative Connect America (A-CAM) program and why the company is so excited about a possible extension to the program, even as the US gets set to award an unprecedented $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband program. “A-CAM has been absolutely revolutionary for improving our hardest-to-serve rural areas,” said TDS Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Andrew Petersen. TDS is rather unique among publicly-held broadband providers in that it is eligible to participate in the A-CAM program, which was available only to rate-of-return carriers, most of which are small rural incumbents. The program is only open to incumbents and also excludes price cap carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, and Frontier. The escalating need for faster broadband compelled TDS and other stakeholders to ask the FCC to extend the A-CAM program for an additional six years and raise the deployment speed target to 100/20 Mbps, which would match the speed target of the upcoming BEAD program. It’s worth noting that TDS also may prefer the A-CAM option because the company would not have to compete against other providers for funding as it would have to do under BEAD program rules.