Frontier First Carrier to Accept Connect America Fund Money for Broadband Buildout
About 200,000 rural Americans could get broadband for the first time as Frontier announced Monday it would accept nearly $72 million from the FCC’s Connect America Fund. The commission announced the funding in April, allocating a total of $300 million to ten carriers if they agreed to deploy broadband to unserved areas (CD April 26 p1). Frontier is the first carrier to say it will accept the funding.
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Frontier will use the money to provide broadband service to an additional 92,876 households in more than half the 27 states it serves, at a subsidy of $775 per location. Rural markets are “hungry for access,” said Kathleen Abernathy, Frontier executive vice president-external affairs. “The support will supplement the more than $1.5 billion of private investment made by Frontier over the last two years to deploy an advanced communications network to rural America.” Nationally, Frontier provides broadband to nearly 80 percent of households within its territories. According to a Frontier spokeswoman, the telco had 1.7 million broadband subscribers at the end of Q1; 92,876 households would be an increase of more than five percent.
"This is the most significant effort ever undertaken to connect rural America to broadband,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. “For the first time, universal service funding will be targeted to unserved homes, businesses, and anchor institutions in rural areas, and companies will be held accountable for building out infrastructure.” Genachowski said he applauds Frontier for “stepping up to the plate.” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she was pleased to hear Frontier had accepted the CAF money, made available after USF reforms last year.
The commission also allocated $90 million to CenturyLink, $60 million to Windstream, $48 million to AT&T and $20 million to Verizon. FairPoint, Alaska Communications Systems, Consolidated, Hawaiian Telcom and Vitelco were offered about $10 million among them. Carriers have until July 24 to indicate whether they will take the money.