The cable rural broadband funding explosion continues, as two cable companies took home the lion’s share of awards of awards announced in Alabama on Friday.
Mediacom was the big winner in the announcement. The company was awarded $13.4 million in four separate grants for projects in four counties.
Charter was awarded $6.7 million under its Spectrum Southeast moniker. The company won four separate grants for deployments in four counties.
The only other company awarded funding – and the only non-cableco – was Cullman Electric Cooperative, which was awarded a single grant for $4.6 million for a single county.
The awards were made through the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). They totaled $24.7 million and will make high-speed broadband available to nearly 20,000 households, businesses, and community anchors.
This is the latest batch of awards made in the program, which has awarded a total of $88.6 million since its inception in 2018.
The Rural Cable Funding Explosion
Charter made other cable companies sit up and take notice when it was one of the biggest winners in the 2020 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program, winning over $1 billion to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to unserved rural areas.
Since then, cable companies have been applying for — and winning — a considerable amount of funding through state broadband programs.
States that have awarded funding to Charter include Missouri, Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
The company also received previous awards through the Alabama program.
Mediacom had previous broadband funding wins in at least one other state — Delaware.
Other cable companies that have won state broadband funding include Comcast and Cox.
Details about the Alabama rural broadband funding awards can be found in this press release.
