I’m cheating this week. I’m actually at TED Global in Edinburgh. (If you don’t know TED, you should definitely check it out.) I hope to take bits and pieces from the very heady talks here for future posts – but mostly this week, I’m being inundated by ideas worth spreading.

So I was delighted to see that Connected Nation has posted a policy paper on Phase II of the Connect America Fund. A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Kevin Beyer from Federated/Farmer’s Telecom talk about the impact of Phase I on his ability to provide service in rural Minnesota. Many folks have been waiting to see the details of Phase II to see how it changes the game. It’s kind of like watching Texas Hold ‘Em – the next card could change the game.

Here are some quick snippets from the Connected Nation report…

The FCC estimates that the service territories of the larger, “price cap” local telephone companies collectively include approximately 80% of the 18.8 million Americans who do not have adequate broadband access today. …

Officially called “Connect America Fund Phase II,” this model will have a significant effect upon the economics of getting broadband to many unserved Americans. The FCC model will calculate an estimated subsidy amount that will be offered to these large companies to build out broadband across their unserved service area on a statewide basis. The price cap providers can accept or reject the offer for a state- or territory-wide build-out. If a provider rejects the offer in a state or territory, the opportunity will be offered to other eligible providers. All told, nearly $10 billion in subsidies over the next five years will be allocated pursuant to these models.

How these models are written and implemented will have a significant impact upon the broadband landscape in every U.S. state and territory.