CenturyLink, Frontier Miss 2019 CAF II Broadband Milestones
Two telcos didn't meet all broadband deployment requirements for having received federal funding, they reported Thursday. CenturyLink might not have met milestones in 23 states for the Connect America Fund Phase II USF program, it filed in docket 10-90. Frontier…
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Communications receives CAF II support for 29 states, and may not have met the 87 percent interim deployment milestone for 2019 in 13. States where both appeared to have missed requirements are Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. The FCC declined to comment. "CenturyLink has been making substantial investments to bring broadband to FCC-designated, high-cost locations in the 33 states where it accepted CAF II money and will continue to," a spokesperson emailed. "Over the last four years, the company has deployed broadband to nearly 900,000 homes and small businesses in FCC-designated census blocks across rural America." The filing said the funding was for about 1 million locations. As the USF recipient approaches completion of CAF II obligations, "the remaining locations are the most challenging to serve," CenturyLink said. "Factors including density and terrain, for example, may have impacted the final number of homes and businesses." Both telcos said they will file a 2019 year-end report by March 1. Illinois Citizens Utility Board Executive Director David Kolata wants to know what the companies will do to catch up. "Generally, citizens in more rural parts of Illinois have been frustrated for a while at the lack of quality broadband options," he told us. "Even in the best of circumstances in large cities, you often don’t have much choice." Rural and sparsely populated places may have no quality wireline or wireless internet service, Kolata said. "It’s a big policy issue and one that I know the governor and general assembly" have been working on. Officials in other states also said they are watching the buildout situation with the two phone companies.