CARROLLTON Carroll County is receiving $4.1 million to bring high-speed broadband service into more rural areas of the county.
It s part of the Federal Communications Commission s effort to provide broadband service in rural areas across the country. Ohio is slated to receive $170 million during the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program. I view internet service as a necessity in these days, Carroll County Commissioner Christopher Modranski said. There are a lot of areas that are either unserved or under served. That has always been a talking point here.
Four companies have been chosen to bring the needed upgrades to the county. CCO Holdings, also known as Charter Communications, of Stamford, Conn., is receiving the largest portion of the work as its share of the project is valued at $3.16 million. Charter Communications also is known by Charter Spectrum.
AT&T and Verizon are looking to extricate themselves from the messy business of building a bridge across the digital divide. Instead of collecting money themselves for the government s aging Lifeline program designed to subsidize telecom services for poor Americas they want Congress to do it instead.
The move is well timed. A pandemic forcing almost everyone to work and school online has helped to elevate Internet connections from nice-to-have to must-have. And the incoming Biden administration has pledged support for universal broadband.
Further, new proposals from AT&T and Verizon to eliminate Lifeline could actually result in dramatically increasing the amount of money they receive from the US government to provide telecom services to poor Americans. At the same time, they will probably be able to reduce their customers monthly bills.
Press release content from Globe Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.
Rural Broadband Auction Results Raise Concerns About Execution, Financial Risk
CoBankJanuary 25, 2021 GMT
DENVER, Jan. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) The results of the first round of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction left many industry participants questioning how the commission decided to allocate the funds. Among the concerns raised was the FCC’s decision to award $885.5 million to SpaceX for its unproven Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite business.
Additionally, some Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) received a significant amount of government support that appears to be much larger than anything they have experience deploying. Naturally, this raises questions about their ability to execute on that scale and to secure the necessary letters of credit.
FCC Efforts Help Rural Ohio County Expand Broadband Access
As part of the FCC’s effort to provide broadband service in rural areas across the country, Ohio is slated to receive $170 million during the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program. by Malcolm Hall, The Repository / January 25, 2021 Shutterstock/Jer123
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Carroll County, Ohio, is receiving $4.1 million to bring high-speed broadband service into more rural areas of the county.
It s part of the
Federal Communications Commission s effort to provide broadband service in rural areas across the country.
Ohio is slated to receive $170 million during the first phase of the
The US government s Lifeline program collects fees from telecom companies in order to help poor Americans pay for connectivity. AT&T and Verizon are proposing sweeping changes to that setup.