The state of Florida has awarded $22 million in funding to three providers for deployments in areas where high-speed broadband is not available today.
The biggest winner is Conexon Connect, which will take home over $13.3 million. Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative is slated to receive $5 million and Charter Communications is slated to receive $4.3 million.
The awards came through the state’s Broadband Opportunity Program and will make service available to more than 33,200 unserved residential, educational, business and community locations, according to a press release.
The funding is in addition to $143 million previously awarded in the program in February.
Florida Broadband Funding
Conexon Connect’s awards call for the company to deploy fiber broadband capable of supporting speeds of 1 Gbps symmetrically in three cities, one town and six unincorporated areas.
The Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative award is for one city, which also will receive fiber broadband supporting speeds up to 1 Gbps symmetrically.
Charter’s awards are for 12 cities and three unincorporated areas. Those awards also call for fiber broadband supporting 1 Gbps symmetrical speeds.
Although the press release from Florida governor Ron DeSantis did not include the service providers that were awarded funding, a representative from Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity provided Telecompetitor with the following details:
- City of Live Oak ($5,000,000): Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative
- City of Madison and Town of Lee ($5,000,000): Conexon Connect
- Cities of Monticello and Perry; Unincorporated Lamont and Wacissa ($5,000,000): Conexon Connect
- Unincorporated Allentown and Wallace; Chumukla and Pace ($3,353,384): Conexon Connect
- City of Plant City; Unincorporated Balm, Keysville, Lithia and Wimauma ($906,000): Charter Communications
- City of Laurel Hill, Unincorporated Deerland and Svea, and Unincorporated Okaloosa County ($853,000): Charter Communications
- City of San Antonio, Land O Lakes and Shady Hills, and Unincorporated Pasco County ($2,003,815): Charter Communications
- City of Dade City, Crystal Springs, Dade City North, Lacoochee, Richland, Zephyrhills North, Zephyrhills South, and Unincorporated Pasco County ($578,531): Charter Communications
Charter won considerably more funding in the February awards, taking home over $28 million. Fellow cable companies Cox and Comcast also won tens of millions of dollars at that time.
Unlike with this round, some of the funding in the previous round went for projects supporting speeds slower than 1 Gbps. Charter’s projects in that round only called for service supporting speeds of 300 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream.
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative won $10 million and Conexon Connect won $5 million in the previous round for fiber broadband deployments.
Updated with additional information from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity
