Expressions of Interest from Texas Cover Areas Across the State in FCC Rural Broadband Experiment Program

Expressions of interest filed from Texas for the FCC’s Rural Broadband Experiment program cover areas throughout the state ranging from those narrowly focusing on county-wide, unserved areas to proposals aimed at serving gaps across the entire state.

Last January, the FCC voted to create the Rural Broadband Experiment program that it hopes will help shape and adjust its Connect America Fund (CAF) broadband subsidy program. These rural broadband experiments mark the first opportunity for providers that are not the incumbent local telephone company in a particular area to receive CAF subsidies to build and operate fixed broadband networks in those areas.

“Expressions of interest” were due at the FCC on March 7, and proposed project funding requests in Texas range from just $150,000 to as much as $487 million in subsidies. The overall budget for all 52 proposed projects is upward of $853 million.

As discussed in a previous blog post, the FCC solicited the expressions of interest from providers, communities, institutions, and public-private partnerships regarding their ideas and proposals as to how they would utilize CAF subsidies to support broadband infrastructure build-out in unserved areas.

To read Connected Nation’s summary on the filings from Texas, please click here.