FairPoint Communications Inc. has accepted $37,430,669 in annual Connect American Fund Phase II support to sustain and deploy voice and broadband services in 14 states. Using the funds, FairPoint must provide broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to over 105,000 homes and businesses in its rural, high-cost service areas. FairPoint rejected the offer of CAF support for its service areas in the states of Colorado and Kansas. A table showing FairPoint’s annual support amount broken down on a state-by-state basis is available from the FCC. To date, two other carriers – Frontier ($283 million) and Windstream ($174 million) – have notified the FCC of their decisions to accept or deny CAF Phase II support. The remaining seven price cap carriers must notify the FCC of their decisions on or before August 27, 2015.
