FairPoint Communications said it would accept $2 million in Connect...
FairPoint Communications said it would accept $2 million in Connect America Fund money to accelerate broadband buildout to 53 towns throughout Vermont, and a village in Maine. The FCC had offered the telco more than $4.8 million. FairPoint couldn’t accept…
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it all because of the restrictions placed on the funds, a spokeswoman said. “Our goal is to take as much as we could, and we did.” The subsidy was “very helpful,” she said. The initiative will bring broadband to about 7,100 locations, of which more than 2,600 qualify for CAF funding. FCC rules mandate that two-thirds of the project be complete within two years, with one more year to complete the rest, the FairPoint spokeswoman said. To qualify for funding, a town must be currently unserved, and not already slated for broadband development within the next three years. More than 15 percent of Vermonters are unserved by broadband, putting the state in the bottom half of such access, an FCC spokesman said. “Thousands of previously unserved Americans will get broadband within the next 12 months alone,” said Chairman Julius Genachowski. “In today’s economy, access to broadband means access to jobs and economic opportunity, in addition to better education and healthcare.” Fairpoint has invested almost $100 million on broadband in Vermont since 2008, said Mike Smith, the state’s president for the telco. It’s the second that’s agreed to accept CAF money to build out broadband to some of the 18 million Americans who lack access. Frontier said earlier this month it would take the entire $72 million allotted to it (CD July 10 p5). The FCC also allocated $90 million to CenturyLink, $60 million to Windstream, $48 million to AT&T and $20 million to Verizon. Carriers have until this Tuesday to accept the money. AT&T’s decision whether to accept CAF funding for broadband build out will depend in part on whether the company could be “subject to service obligations that may be adopted only after AT&T’s decision is made,” telco executives told FCC Wireline Bureau officials (http://xrl.us/bnhxdh). The company asked the commission to make clear that there would be no retroactive imposition of obligations on recipients of incremental funding. Meanwhile, CenturyLink executives met with advisors to each FCC commissioner Thursday. The executives explained why its requested waiver freeing it from some of the conditions for receiving CAF money for broadband buildout (CD July 16 p8), are “appropriate,” a filing said: The waiver will “help achieve the basic objectives” of the program (http://xrl.us/bnhxdm).