Windstream Communications Inc. has accepted $13.2 million from the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund to expand high-speed Internet services to its rural Arkansas customers, the Little Rock-based firm and the federal agency said Wednesday.
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Behold. A telecommunications company taking federal funding to invest in rural broadband.
Companies receiving money from the Connect America Fund must expand broadband to 40 percent of design.ated locations by the end of 2017 and 100 percent by the end of 2020, according to the news release.
With the funding, Windstream will build out its network to provide Internet speeds of at least 10 megabit per second downloads and 1 megabit per second uploads, the FCC said. The Windstream service will be made available to residents living primarily in Southern states along with a few in the MidWest.
The Connect America Fund supports networks capable of providing high-speed Internet services in rural areas where market forces alone can not support expansion. The company declined the offer for the state of New Mexico. “But the statewide offer would not enable us to meet the program’s obligations”.
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“The Connect America Fund is delivering on its promise of ensuring that all Americans have access to the opportunities provided by modern broadband service, no matter where they live”, Wheeler said in a statement. “This continuously assist nutritional supplements Windstream’s noticeable group expenditures, activating everybody to proceed to service in plenty of high cost spots and to give new service to many others”.
