The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on August 31 that the agency is preparing to provide $791 million of new funding for state broadband buildouts through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
The fund was created in 2019 and will distribute up to $20.4 billion over ten years to help bring fixed broadband and voice service to unserved areas of rural America through a reverse auction process among service providers that prioritizes higher broadband network speeds.
To date, the fund has provided more than $6 billion for broadband service deployments in 47 states.
The latest funding round will go to service providers in 19 states to finance broadband service deployments to more than 350,000 homes and businesses. The top three states receiving funding in the latest round are: $212 million for Illinois; $140 million for Arizona; and $113 million for Iowa.
“This funding will connect more households throughout the country with high-speed broadband as part of our ongoing work to close the digital divide,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We are confident these projects can bring quality service to currently unserved areas,” she said.
