FCC OKs 220 Applicants for CAF Phase II Auction of Fixed Broadband Subsidies, Rejects 57

in docket 17-182. Auction 903 is making available up to $1.98 billion -- in aggregate over 10 years -- in high-cost areas traditionally served by large ILECs that denied initial CAF II offers. Among qualified bidders: Allband, Altice USA, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Telephone, Cox Communications, Docomo Pacific, Frontier Communications, Hawaiian Telcom, Hughes Network Systems, Lumos Telephone, Midcontinent Communications, New Cingular Wireless (AT&T), U.S. Cellular, Verizon, Viasat and Windstream. Companies sometimes submit applications under other names. CenturyLink and T-Mobile told us they didn't apply. Charter Communications, Comcast and Sprint didn't comment. Qualified bidders are eligible to bid in at least one of the states for at least one of the broadband performance tier and latency combinations they selected, but may not be eligible to bid in every state or performance tier and latency combination they targeted. Among unqualified applicants: Accipiter Communications, Shentel, Skybeam and Sonus Technologies. They remain subject to rules prohibiting certain communications on bids and bidding strategies. Qualified bidders can participate in a July 18-19 mock auction and the actual auction over the internet using a CAF Bidding System. A user guide for that system and other resources are available at the Auction 903 webpage. An online tutorial will be Friday at noon EDT, and a workshop will be July 9 at 2-4 p.m. at commission headquarters.