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U.S. telco watchdog seeks to facilitate network deployment in hard-to-reach areas.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week agreed rules paving the way for allocating US$2 billion (€1.79 billion) of public money to fund rural broadband deployments.
Last year, $9 billion was allotted to the country’s biggest telcos under phase two of the Connect America Fund (CAF), but that still left some parts of the country without adequate broadband coverage.
As a result, the FCC has earmarked another $2 billion and invited smaller players to bid for funding with the aim of extending broadband networks to areas where deployment costs are inordinately high.
The FCC has set out four tiers of service that it deems eligible for funding. These range from an ‘entry-level’ service of 10 Mbps downlink, 1 Mbps uplink, plus a 150 GB per month data allowance, right up to a high-end service that offers 1 Gbps downlink, 500 Mbps uplink, plus unlimited data.
As well as pledging to meet one of the four service-level standards, telcos must also commit to building 40% of the network within three years of receiving authorisation, rising to 60% after four years, 80% after five years, and 100% after six years.
Progress reports must also be submitted to the FCC so it can monitor deployments.
"We welcome the commission’s progress towards conducting an auction to provide funding for the delivery of broadband service in rural areas," said Jon Banks, SVP of law and policy at lobby group USTelecom.
"We look forward to working with the commission and interested parties to fully develop an auction process that will connect as many rural Americans living in these very high-cost areas to the Internet as efficiently as possible within the limited budget available," he said.
