The fund is through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which aims to expand the broadband service to 32 states in the US. FCC named this funding round as the largest one to date, and also the first of a kind to release quality checks in a public domain.
Broadband to One Million Areas
Though the US is one of the most advanced countries in the world, it still has dark areas in many aspects. One among them is the availability of the internet, even though the US is stated as one of the most technologically advanced countries today. Thus, to make broadband available in those dark remote areas, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a fresh $1.2 billion fund through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, in order to expand the broadband service across 32 states in the US. Calling this as “the largest funding round to date,” FCC said 23 broadband companies will provide service to more than one million new areas in the country. Further, the authority has also set up a Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, under which it doubled the number of audits and verifications to be performed when compared to 2021.
— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcelFCC) January 28, 2022 Further, FCC decided to publish all the results of such verifications, audits, and the speed and latency tests on Universal Service Administration Company’s (USAC) website. This is to ensure “that program providers do their jobs,” said FCC chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel on her Twitter. FCC’s spending comes after Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, which was signed in November last year for solving the problems in the broadband industry. This included a $65 billion fund dedicated to providing broadband to every American household.
