The FCC will soon award $215 million to facilitate the deployment of Broadband services. And you may qualify to benefit from the upcoming Connect America Fund (“CAF”) Phase II Competitive Auction. Even if you don’t plan to bid, your competitors likely will. They could be the ones receiving subsidies to compete in your own backyard, or move into markets where you initially planned to expand. Either way, you owe it to you company to at least investigate the potential that exists here.

Among the 317,243 auction-eligible blocks in the FCC’s preliminary list are census blocks 1) where price cap ILECs refused model support and 2) extremely high cost blocks.  The Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) released the preliminary list of auction-eligible blocks based on June 2015 Form 477 data. A final list will be available no later than three months prior to the submission deadline for the short-form application. Based on analysis of the data, TMI has identified the total maximum potential funding available in each state.

Of the $974 million possible nationwide, the FCC will be awarding only $215 million annually.  Support recipients and amounts will be determined through reverse auction. Reserve prices will be set by using the Connect America Cost Model (CAM). The FCC is leaning towards a multi-round auction format. All bids will be considered simultaneously, while taking into account FCC preferences for higher speeds, higher usage allowances, and lower latency.

The application filing process will be accomplished in two stages; before and after the auction itself. Pre-auction, you will submit a short form application to disclose information establishing your identity, such as parties with ownership interests in your company and other details. The short form application will also indicate the type of bids you plan to make and describe the technology you plan to use to provide service for each bid. Post-auction (you have a winning bid), you will submit a long form application. Among other details, you will have to present your financial and technical qualifications, your ability to meet all applicable public interest obligations, and the technology and system design you plan to use. Additionally, all bid winners must submit proof of their ETC designation within 180 days of the public notice announcing them as winning bidders.

You are in good company if you still lack specific information about dates because they have not been released yet. However, you can rely on TMI to stay a few steps ahead while you wait. You can start identifying potential funding opportunities in your service area from the preliminary block list released by the Bureau. To assist you with this, TMI has developed worksheets, which identify block groups with overlapping CAF II funding and broadband provider deployment. TMI Consulting Services can help you review the short form application’s requirements and assist you in developing a plan to fulfill and document them before applying. Keep up with open rulemakings, critical dates, and other FCC actions related to CAF with TMI Briefing Service.