Wednesday, September 23, 2015

County-level map shows recipients of $9 billion Phase II funding for rural high-speed Internet

The Daily Yonder has created a county-level map that details Phase II funding of the Connect America Fund to bring high-speed Internet to more rural areas. Phase II consists of $9 billion in funding in broadband subsidies to the largest telecommunications companies to provide broadband to 7.3 million hard-to-reach rural customers, Tim Marema reports for the Yonder.

The Federal Communications Commission "warns that there will be some variability in these potential service areas," Marema writes. "Borders could change based on how the broadband work proceeds over the six-year subsidy program. But as a rule, carriers that accepted this subsidy must provide broadband to these areas at a minimum speed of 10 megabytes for downloads and 1 megabyte for uploads. State-level goals are to complete 40 percent of the build-out by 2017, with additional 20 percent increases in service each year through 2020." (For an interactive version of the Yonder map, click here)

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