Nearly Every County to Share $368 Million in FCC Broadband Money
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has released additional information on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announcement of $9.2 Billion dollars to bring high speed internet to millions of Americans through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase 1 auction. Pennsylvania projects will get over $368 million to 13 different vendors, the largest being the SpaceX (Elon Musk) satellite project.
The Pennsylvania projects will reach an about 20% of the unserved population (estimated 327,000 Pennsylvanians/184,505 households) in every county except Northampton. Nearly all locations will receive broadband with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, which is four times faster than the “Netflix speed” benchmark of 25 Mbps currently used by the FCC to define access to broadband service. Of these, 64% will receive gigabit-speed broadband. Providers must meet periodic buildout requirements to reach all assigned locations by the end of the sixth year. They are incentivized to build out to all locations as fast as possible.
Only 5 states (California, Arkansas, Mississippi, Minesota and Wisconsin) get more broadband support than Pennsylvania. Population wasn’t the driver either since both Texas and West Virginia got 362 Million! Funding was awarded to private companies that have the responsibility to meet the federal requirements of the program.
The PUC notes that successful funding for these projects is the result of work by stakeholders who supported and encouraged outreach on this subject, including the Governor’s Office and legislators from across Pennsylvania, along with Penn State University’s Rural Extension Program, which developed a detailed map that showed all the eligible areas.
The auction unleashed robust competition that resulted in more locations being awarded at less cost to Americans who pay into the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. In fact, the awards were less than the FCC had planned, which means more funding will be available for future auctions to fund service to underserved residents and businesses. Click here to learn more.
Counties receiving service to the most unserved households and businesses (more than 6,000 each): Bedford, Bradford, and Wayne
Counties receiving the largest financial investment: Bradford, Bedford, and Susquehanna
Awards by county – (Click here for more detailed breakdowns)
Adams: 1,775 locations at $2.8 million
Allegheny: 897 locations at $687,250
Armstrong: 1,413 locations at $4.9 million
Beaver: 834 locations at $1.3 million
Bedford: 6,459 locations at $21.3 million
Berks: 1,768 locations at $2.2 million
Blair: 3,261 locations at $3.8 million
Bradford: 6,549 locations at $22.9 million
Bucks: 701 locations at $323,324
Butler: 1,970 locations at $3 million
Cambria: 3,557 locations at $5.2 million
Cameron: 706 locations at $2.2 million
Carbon: 727 locations at $1 million
Centre: 4,442 locations at $5.6 million
Chester: 938 locations at $1.2 million
Clarion: 3,216 locations at $10.8 million
Clearfield: 4,023 locations at $9.4 million
Clinton: 772 locations at $1 million
Columbia: 4,219 locations at $8.2 million
Crawford: 4,833 locations at $7.8 million
Cumberland: 3,010 locations at $4.9 million
Dauphin: 875 locations at $1.8 million
Delaware: 178 locations at $129,896
Elk: 1,288 locations at $5 million
Erie: 3,099 locations at $2.6 million
Fayette: 3,696 locations at $3.8 million
Forest: 2,997 locations at $6.5 million
Franklin: 4,410 locations at $6.7 million
Fulton: 4,350 locations at $10.1 million
Greene: 2,879 locations at $14 million
Huntingdon: 3,288 locations at $8.4 million
Indiana: 5,911 locations at $14.2 million
Jefferson: 1,904 locations at $5.7 million
Juniata: 5,168 locations at $8.7 million
Lackawanna: 2,265 locations at $2.9 million
Lancaster: 4,547 locations at $7.2 million
Lawrence: 1,104 locations at $1.8 million
Lebanon: 613 locations at $737,132
Lehigh: 138 locations at $339,939
Luzerne: 3,191 locations at $5.9 million
Lycoming: 4,583 locations at $11.5 million
McKean: 2,008 locations at $4.6 million
Mercer: 3,334 locations at $6.2 million
Mifflin: 4,460 locations at $8.3 million
Monroe: 656 locations at $593,199
Montgomery: 558 locations at $253,662
Montour: 1,583 locations at $3.6 million
Northumberland: 2,193 locations at $4.3 million
Perry: 4,200 locations at $7.7 million
Philadelphia: 970 locations at $480,244
Pike: 1,722 locations at $1.2 million
Potter: 1,912 locations at $4.3 million
Schuylkill: 2,772 locations at $5 million
Snyder: 4,861 locations at $9.8 million
Somerset: 3,066 locations at $5 million
Sullivan: 3,499 locations at $8.9 million
Susquehanna: 5,702 locations at $18.8 million
Tioga: 3,787 locations at $4.8 million
Union: 2,003 locations at $3.4 million
Venango: 2,291 locations at $4.6 million
Warren: 3,439 locations at $4 million
Washington: 3,278 locations at $6.5 million
Wayne: 6,727 locations at $5.3 million
Westmoreland: 1,714 locations at $2 million
Wyoming: 1,128 locations at $3.5 million
York: 4,078 locations at $6.4 million
