[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink to accept $54 million in Connect America Funds

[Richard Lowenberg]

The following stories/announcements pertain to CenturyLink nationally.
Here's a little of the New Mexico aspect of the FCC's Connect America 
program:

Many low-income rural and urban families in NM will benefit by 
qualifying for reduced rate ($9.99) broadband service from providers 
cooperating with the FCC in addressing the ‘digital divide’.   
CenturyLink and Comcast are already participating.   CenturyLink is 
currently utilizing Connect America funds in 21 NM communities, 19 of 
which are concentrated in Deming and Silver City.

RL
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CenturyLink to accept $54 million in Connect America Funds

Company to bring broadband to 92,000 rural consumers

http://news.centurylink.com/index.php?s=43&item=3071

Aug 20, 2013

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. announced 
today that it will accept $54 million from the Federal Communications 
Commission's Connect America Fund (CAF) this year to bring broadband to 
more than 92,000 rural homes and businesses in unserved high-cost areas.

When combined with its copayment, CenturyLink will invest more than 
$108 million over the next three years to bring broadband speeds of 4 
Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream to rural households and businesses 
in 33 of the 37 states where it offers residential broadband service. 
The company's investment of its own capital will exceed the amount of 
CAF phase I, round 2 funding it accepts.

Earlier this year, close to 100 members of Congress from both parties 
urged the FCC to quickly distribute CAF phase I, round 2 money to bring 
broadband to more rural Americans.

"We commend the FCC for its collective commitment to bringing the many 
benefits of high-speed Internet service to unserved high-cost areas of 
rural America," said Steve Davis, CenturyLink executive vice president 
for public policy and government relations. "CenturyLink is investing 
millions of dollars to deploy broadband to thousands of Americans who 
live in areas that would be cost prohibitive to serve without programs 
like the FCC's Connect America Fund."

CenturyLink was eligible to receive $90 million in CAF phase I, round 2 
money, but the FCC's market eligibility restrictions made further 
deployment uneconomic.

The $54 million is in addition to $35 million in CAF phase I, round 1 
money that CenturyLink accepted in 2012 to deploy broadband service to 
45,000 homes and businesses in unserved rural areas. Through the CAF I 
program, CenturyLink is deploying broadband to nearly 140,000 unserved 
rural consumers.

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CenturyLink Accepts More Than Half of This Year’s Connect America 
Funding

8/20/13  by Joan Engebretson

http://www.telecompetitor.com/centurylink-accepts-more-than-half-of-this-years-connect-america-funding/

CenturyLink this morning said it would accept $54 million of $90 
million offered to the company through the Connect America Fund program 
to help cover some of the cost of bringing broadband to areas that 
cannot get broadband today. Under the terms of the program established 
for this year, the company also will invest an additional $54 million or 
more of its own in the broadband deployments, which will include 33 of 
the 37 states where the company is the incumbent local telephone service 
provider.

“CenturyLink is investing millions of dollars to deploy broadband to 
thousands of Americans who live in areas that would be cost prohibitive 
to serve without programs like the FCC’s Connect America Fund,” said 
CenturyLink Executive Vice President for Public Policy and Government 
Relations Steve Davis in today’s announcement.

The Connect America Fund program got underway last year and is funded 
by the telecom industry using money that previously would have gone 
toward the cost of providing voice service to high-cost rural areas. The 
FCC is transitioning away from that program to one focused on broadband.

The commission last year established a yearly funding amount for each 
of the nation’s largest price cap carriers, based on the number of rural 
lines in a carrier’s territory.  Last year CenturyLink accepted $35 
million of the $90 million it was offered.

The company likely accepted a higher amount of funding this year 
because the terms of the program changed somewhat for this year. Last 
year, carriers were offered $775 per line to bring service to customers 
that could not get broadband speeds of 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps 
upstream.

This year’s program again offers that option but also gives carriers 
the option of accepting $550 per line for homes that cannot get service 
at speeds of 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream. And it appears 
that CenturyLink is primarily targeting homes in that category.
According to today’s release, the company expects to bring service to 
nearly 95,000 homes for this year, which works out to an average of $568 
per home.


Update: In a follow up interview, Steve Davis offered some additional 
details about CAF funding requirements for this year.

Before carriers can accept funding for any customers who currently get 
service above 768kbps downstream but below 3 Mbps, they must first 
confirm that they have brought service to every customer lacking service 
above 768 kbps who can be economically served for the $775 support rate.

CenturyLink, he said, did a “painstaking location-by-location analysis 
to find everywhere we could conceivably build broadband economically.”   
He also noted that CenturyLink aims to use a fiber-to-the-neighborhood 
approach to serving the homes it will upgrade through the Connect 
America program.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Dir.
1st-Mile Institute, 505-603-5200
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
www.1st-mile.org  rl at 1st-mile.org
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