Tag Archives: Enhanced A-CAM

More info on 22 Companies accepting Enhanced A-CAM funds in Minnesota

Posted on by
Reply

The FCC reports…

Consistent with the Commission’s Enhanced A-CAM Order, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) authorizes 368 rate-of-return companies that elected offers of Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced A-CAM) support to receive model-based support.[1]  Authorization Report 1, released today, shows the authorization amount and initial deployment obligations for each carrier that elected an offer.[2]  The authorizations specify support to the electing companies for a 15-year period beginning January 1, 2024, in exchange for these companies committing to deploy broadband service of at least 100/20 Mbps service to over 700,000 unserved locations across the United States, and maintain or improve existing 100/20 Mbps service to approximately 2 million locations.

Below are the companies serving Minnesota. This list is slightly different than the list I shared earlier in October. Rural Communications Holding Corporation was not on that list.

Holding Company Current Funding  Required Locations Carrier-Served Locations  
 
  ACAM and ACAM II Subtotal                  398,975                            989,720
  CAF BLS Subtotal                    54,054                            510,995
  Total                  453,029                         1,500,715
Albany Mutual Telephone Association ACAM                          26                               3,831
Alliance Communications Cooperative, Inc. ACAM                          29                                  693
Arvig Enterprises, Inc. ACAM                    20,621                             50,966
Benton Cooperative Telephone Company ACAM                          11                               5,826
Rural Communications Holding Corporation ACAM                      1,542                             17,885
Consolidated Telephone Company BLS                          26                             13,656
Emily Cooperative Telephone Company BLS                             –                               2,556
Garden Valley Telephone Company ACAM                         227                             17,786
Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Association ACAM                      1,732                               2,039
Halstad Telephone Company ACAM                             –                               1,629
Harmony Telephone Company ACAM                         460                                  535
Johnson Telephone Company ACAM                         424                               2,842
Kasson & Mantorville Telephone Company ACAM                         116                               4,974
Manchester-Hartland Telephone Company BLS                             –                                  630
Park Region Mutual Telephone Company ACAM                      1,255                               5,032
Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative ACAM                         163                             15,617
Spring Grove Communications ACAM                            4                               1,359
Telephone & Data Systems, incl. UScellular ACAM                    11,044                             10,975
Upsala Cooperative Telephone Association ACAM                            2                               1,208
West Central Telephone Assn. ACAM                             –                               5,529
Wikstrom Telephone Company, Inc. ACAM                      1,155                               8,475
Tri-Co Technologies, LLC BLS                         494                               2,964

 

Arvig sign up for Enhanced A-CAM funding in Todd, Becker, Stearns, Hubbard, Otter Tail, Redwood and Cass Counties

Posted on by
1

I wrote about the Minnesota companies that opted to sign up for Enhanced A-CAM funding but it’s nice to see local press pick up on it too. Grand Forks Herald reports…

Arvig has elected to enroll in a newly modernized Alternative Connect America Model (A-CAM) program that has been granted additional project funding and includes higher internet speed targets.

The Federal Communications Commission established Enhanced A-CAM after adopting an order to raise target speeds to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload in eligible project areas. The updated program also makes a share of $13.5 billion available to Arvig and the nation’s 446 other participating service providers. …

Through this federal program, Arvig will invest in network projects across dozens of rural communities in the coming years to bring high-speed internet to thousands of households in the region. Arvig is on track to easily meet the higher speed targets, of up to 100 Mbps/20 Mbps, with many eligible areas projected to receive access to internet speeds up to 8 Gbps. …

Arvig has participated in A-CAM since it was established in 2016 and has since provided services to more than 43 rural communities throughout Minnesota. In 2023, Arvig is focusing its ACAM efforts on the rural areas of Eagle Bend, Frazee, Grey Eagle, Melrose, Nevis, New York Mills, Wabasso, Walker and Vergas, providing access to internet speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) download and 100 Mbps upload.

A-CAM’s previous target speed was 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.