[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink Accepts Nearly $506 Million in Annual Support from Connect America Fund

[drew einhorn]

I agree.

CenturyLink should have been disqualified due to their longstanding refusal
to invest a dime of their own money to upgrade rural infrastructure.  It
should have gone to service providers that have established a track record
investing their own money in building rural infrastructure

On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 2:00 PM Christopher Mitchell <
christopher at newrules.org> wrote:

> I would love to see what some of the local providers could do with $11
> million. Though it may not reach 25,000 in the same time span that
> CenturyLink can owing to its historic monopoly, I suspect the social
> benefits would be significantly larger and would actually lead to more
> investment in the future. Dumping more money into a monopoly that has
> little ambition to ever meet the needs of its captive audience is a bad
> decision.
>
> Seeing government put $11 million into a company that offers such a poor
> service, whether measured technically or by the customer service, is
> upsetting.
>
> Not that this is the fault of the employees, who I have no doubt work
> hard. But rather a system designed in the interests of a few to the
> detriment of most of us.
>
> Christopher Mitchell
> Director, Community Broadband Networks
> Institute for Local Self-Reliance
>
> http://www.muninetworks.org
> @communitynets
> 612-276-3456 x209
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org>
> wrote:
>
>> CenturyLink Accepts Nearly $506 Million in Annual Support from Connect
>> America Fund to Expand
>> and Support Broadband for Over 2.3 Million Consumers in 33 States.
>>
>> The Connect America Fund support will enable CenturyLink to deliver
>> broadband at speeds of at
>> least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to nearly 1.2 million
>> homes and businesses in
>> its rural service areas where the cost of broadband deployment might
>> otherwise be prohibitive.
>>
>> “CenturyLink’s acceptance of over one-half billion dollars from the
>> Connect America Fund
>> represents a huge investment in broadband for its rural customers,” said
>> FCC Chairman Tom
>> Wheeler. “This is the largest amount accepted by any company to date –
>> and the opportunities
>> that modern broadband will provide for the rural communities CenturyLink
>> serves are priceless.”
>>
>> The allocation in NM:
>> Number of homes and businesses reached: 25,308
>> Amount to be spent: $10,942,747
>>
>>
>> http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0827/DOC-335071A1.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
>> 1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
>> Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
>> rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
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