Windstream expanding broadband access

More rural Iowa residents will have access to higher broadband Internet speeds due to a decision by Windstream Communications to accept $28.7 million in ongoing, annual support from the federal Connect America Fund.

The multiyear funding will enable Windstream to deliver broadband at speeds of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to approximately 44,930 rural homes and businesses in Iowa where the cost of broadband deployment might otherwise be cost prohibitive.

The Federal Communications Commission created the Connect America Fund to bring broadband access to rural communities that would otherwise be bypassed by the digital economy. The fund aims to connect 7 million unserved rural Americans to broadband in six years, and puts the nation on a path to connect all 19 million unserved rural residents by 2020.

Windstream will spend more than $1.2 million in Harrison and Tama counties to provide broadband Internet access to more than 3,500 homes and businesses. The company plans to spend nearly $267,000 in Linn County to provide access to 522 rural homes and businesses.

In Johnson County, Windstream will use more than $650,000 to extend broadband access to roughly 1,200 rural homes and businesses.

Nationwide, Windstream has accepted nearly $175 million in ongoing, annual support from the Connect America Fund to expand and support broadband for more than 800,000 of its rural customers in 17 states.

Phase I of the FCC's Connect America plan has provided $438 million to expand broadband to nearly 1.7 million people in over 637,000 homes and businesses in 45 states and Puerto Rico.

Over the next six years, the second phase of the plan will provide more than $10 billion to expand broadband-capable networks throughout rural America.