AT&T Takes $100 Million in CAF Broadband Build-Out Funding

AT&T said yesterday it will take $100 million in Connect America Funding, to deliver service of at least 768kbps/200kbps to 129,000 locations. This is a result of FCC's actions to weaken some of the restrictions on this money.

Just a year ago, AT&T and Verizon passed on the first round of funding. AT&T was then unhappy with some of the conditions put on the money. With both AT&T and Verizon passing, most of the $300 million in Phase 1 money ($185 million) went unused.

The first phase of the fund is transitional support as the FCC moves from the old high-cost support mechanisms for price cap carriers to the Connect America Phase II mechanism. In the second phase the FCC will offer $1.8 billion annually to subsidize broadband build-outs in price cap territories via a combination of cost modeling and competitive bidding.

Read more -here-