The FCC today said it has authorized $240 million in Connect America CAF II funding for four more companies that won funding in the CAF II auction. Total CAF II funding authorized now exceeds $1.4 billion—almost all the $1.488 billion that was won in the auction. The funding will go toward the cost of making broadband available to more than 100,000 unserved rural locations.
The majority of the funding in today’s authorization announcement – about $218.7 million — will go to Wisper ISP for deployments in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Other companies authorized include Westfield Gas & Electric Light Department for deployments in Massachusetts, Hughes Network Systems for New York and Mountain West Technologies for Wyoming.
CAF II funding is distributed to recipients over time as networks are constructed. There are specific build-out targets and all locations must make service available within six years.
CAF II Funding Authorized
Wisper ISP was the second biggest winner in the CAF II auction and plans to deploy fixed wireless service supporting speeds up to 100 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream to some or all the target locations in each state. The only state not targeted to receive 100/10 Mbps service everywhere is Missouri, where some locations will get speeds of 25/3 Mbps. More than half of Wisper’s total funding — $176.3 million – will go to deployments in Missouri.
The CAF II funding authorized for satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems will be augmented with additional funding provided through the New NY Broadband program, which had a total budget of $500 million. The FCC allowed the state of New York to award up to $170 million in CAF II funding for the state because the New NY Broadband program was further along at the time the CAF II auction was being planned. Hughes won $7 million in CAF II funding toward making 25/3 Mbps service available to 22,305 locations in New York.
The latest list of auction winners authorized to receive CAF II funding can be found in this press release, which includes funding authorized, speeds to be offered and locations to be served by service provider by state.
