Telecompetitor reports…

The FCC has authorized Connect America Fund, or CAF II, rural broadband funding for ViaSat and four other companies that won funding through the CAF II auction. Funding authorized totaled $89.2 million.

ViaSat represented the majority of the funding in this authorization round, the eighth the FCC has made since winners were announced last year. The funding authorized will enable the satellite broadband provider to bring service at speeds of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream to parts of 17 states.

Other companies whose funding was authorized in the eighth round include LTD Broadband, which won funding for parts of Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota; Horry Telephone Cooperative, which won funding for South Carolina; Bruce Telephone Company, which won funding for parts of Wisconsin and JCWIFI.com, which also won funding for Wisconsin.

All deployments in today’s announcement are for 25/3 Mbps service except Bruce Telephone, which will deploy 1 Gbps/ 500 Mbps service.