FCC Releases Connect America Funding Map

Wisconsin leads list with $38 million, 13 states get no funding

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/26/2012 3:52:05 PM

The FCC released a map on Thursday showing where the $115 million in FCC Universal Service Fund/Connect America Fund broadband funding was going in phase one of its migration of phone subsidies to fund rural broadband rollouts, and Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky were among the 13 states receiving no Connect America funding.

Wisconsin is getting the most of any state with over $38 million.

The other states not getting funding are Louisiana, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The funds have to be used to build out broadband to unserved areas within three years.

"As our new map demonstrates, millions of Americans still live, work, and travel in rural areas where access to high-speed Internet does not exist," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement. "Through the FCC's Connect America Fund initiatives, we're helping complete our nation's broadband infrastructure, which will lead to job creation, economic growth, and innovation in the 21st century. The map is the latest example of how the agency can use mapping technology to spur innovation and to develop new products for the public."

The map provides a state-by-state breakdown of how much support each is getting and how many counties and census blocks are being served, and the state's total unserved population, defined as not getting at least 3 Mbps downstream, 768 Kbps upstream, the FCC's current threshold definition of high-speed broadband. The map does not include that unserved total, or any other info, for any of the states not getting funds.

The FCC's goal for Connect America is to connect 7 million unserved within six years.

Check the map out here.