Three area internet service providers have been awarded over $5 million from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expand broadband access to rural Iowa. Corn Belt Telephone in Wall Lake received $42,237, Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telephone Company (FMCTC) in Harlan was awarded $12,447 and Windstream Communications received $5.3 million in grants in phase one of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Gov. Kim Reynolds says, “Access to high-speed internet access is an essential part of everyday life. The FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund builds on the efforts we have underway through my empower rural Iowa initiative as well as significant funds we have allocated through the CARES Act. I appreciate President Trump and his Administration for helping us secure broadband internet access for Iowa’s rural communities.” Nearly all locations eligible for the award will receive broadband of speeds up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) with approximately 85 percent receiving gi
The change is related to the Federal Communications Commissionâs auction for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
Successful bidders in Pennsylvania will receive $368.7 million over the next 10 years to bring high-speed internet service to homes and businesses that are underserved or do not have access to broadband that meets current federal standards.
The FCC indicates more than 99% of the successful bids are for 100 Megabit-per-second download speeds, four times faster than the âNetflix speedâ benchmark of 25 Megabits per second currently used by the FCC to define access to broadband service
The state Public Utility Commission noted successful funding for these projects is the result of work by many stakeholders who supported it, including the office of Gov. Tom Wolf, legislators and Penn State Universityâs Rural Extension Program, who developed a detailed and publicly available map that showed all the eligible areas and the support that could be provided to i
Image: SpaceX
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) just awarded $886 million to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring high-speed internet to 642,925 rural locations, spread across 35 US states. The funding was available through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. In total, $9.2 billion was awarded to companies.
The $9.2 billion auction is just the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program. During this auction, $9.2 billion was awarded to 180 companies. Out of all companies, only Rural Electric Cooperate Consortium ($1.1 billion), LTD Broadband ($1.32 billion), and Charter ($1.22 billion) were awarded more funds than Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
But then again, those are all traditional wireline internet providers, whereas SpaceX was the only satellite broadband provider that got funds from this auction. According to the terms of the auction, the selected companies will need to provide broadband internet with a 100 megabit download and up to 20 megabit
More than 3,500 rural homes and businesses in Cambria County will receive access to high-speed internet as a result of the latest Federal Communications Commission service auction.
Democrats and digital rights groups worry that Republicans will try to block any Biden nominee for FCC chairman, effectively hamstringing the agency and delaying the expected reimplementation of Obama-era net neutrality rules.
A GOP victory in just one of the two Senate runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5 would give Republicans the votes needed to keep the FCC split at two commissioners from each party, making it difficult if not impossible for Democrats to push through any divisive policies. While Biden could elevate one of the two Democrats to FCC chair, a three-vote majority would still be required to implement new rules and regulations.