Thanks for Ann Higgins for the heads up on the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) Maps that highlight areas that will receive funding due to Phase I funding of the CAF.

Here are the basic stats for Minnesota:

• Total Locations Receiving Support: 14,137
• Total CAF Support: $10,956,175
• Total Unserved Fixed Broadband (at speeds of 3 Mbps down/ 768kbps up): 226,568
• Number of Counties Supported: 21
• Number of Census Blocks Supported: 2,085

According to Telecompetitor the bulk of the funding is going to CenturyLink and Frontier…

The vast majority of the Phase 1 funding will go to two carriers – CenturyLink and Frontier — with more than 60% of total funding going to Frontier. Both companies operate in multiple states and had flexibility in determining where to spend the money, as long as it went toward serving customers that cannot get broadband at the minimum target speed of 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream today.

So I guess that’s good news for the folks who will get an upgrade. For folks not on the list the FCC has more plans…

This doesn’t mean other unserved homes won’t get broadband. A later phase of the CAF program will target a larger amount of funding at a more granular level based on a cost model. There is also a plan to eventually provide support for bringing broadband to unserved homes in areas served by smaller rate of return carriers, which were not part of the Phase 1 program – although details of that program have yet to be resolved.

I know if I were living in one of these areas, I’d be celebrating the upgrade – but it’s hard for me to cheer too loudly when I know these folks are celebrating their second class standing since the national goal is 100 million homes with 100 Mbps connections and 4 Mbps for the rest.