The Federal Communications Commission on Nov. 10 announced the fourth round of funding for its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, awarding $709 million to support the development of high-speed broadband networks for more than 10 million Americans who live in rural areas.
Since the fund launched in February 2020, the FCC has disbursed more than $1.7 billion to winning bidders for new broadband deployments, according to a news release.
This wave will allow 50 providers to bring broadband to more than 400,000 locations in 26 states. Most of the funding will go to nonprofit rural electric cooperatives to deploy broadband across their service areas.
"This latest announcement highlights the agency’s commitment to supporting even more opportunities to connect hundreds of thousands of Americans to high-speed, reliable broadband service while doing our due diligence to ensure the applicants can deliver to these unserved communities as promised,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in the release.