Last week the FCC released a map of areas that are eligible for Mobility Fund service. Parts of Minnesota – especially Northern Minnesota – qualify:

According to ComputerWorld…

The Mobility Fund, created in 2011 as part if the FCC’s revamp of telephone subsidies under the Universal Service Fund, will award up to $300 million to mobile providers that bring service to new areas. Winning bidders must deploy either 3G service within two years or 4G service within three years of the award. …

The FCC will award the funds in a reverse auction, in which mobile providers will compete to be the lowest-priced provider to bring service to an area. Bidders will compete both with others that may be seeking support in the same area, but also with carriers bidding for support in other areas.

The FCC on Wednesday released a public notice detailing the procedures for Phase I of the Mobility Fund. The window for filing short-form applications opens on June 27 and closes on July 11. The auction will be a single-round, sealed-bid auction, and the FCC will require that the winning bidders provide coverage to at least 75 percent of the road miles in each census tract for which they win support.

In addition to the Phase I funding, the FCC will also offer an additional $50 million in one-time support to tribal lands and $500 million each year for ongoing support of mobile services.