Maximize your funds from the FCC’s Alternate Connect America Model
What is A-CAM? A-CAM is the FCC’s Alternative Connect America Cost Model, which is part of the broader Connect America Fund program, and provides funding over the next ten years to support the expansion of rural broadband across the United States. According to the FCC, A-CAM funding will support bringing broadband to over 631,000 locations in 43 states.
The federal universal service high-cost program, also known as the Connect America Fund, is designed to ensure that consumers in rural, insular, and high-cost areas have access to modern communications networks capable of providing voice and broadband service, both fixed and mobile, at rates that are reasonably comparable to those in urban areas. The program fulfills this universal service goal by allowing eligible carriers who serve these areas to recover some of their costs from the federal Universal Service Fund.
Carriers participating in Connect America Fund programs must file deployment data with USAC’s HUBB (High Cost Universal Broadband) portal. These filings will detail where carriers are building out mass-market, high-speed internet service by precise location. This information includes latitude and longitude coordinates for every location where service is/will be made available. For A-CAM recipients, the filing deadline is March 1st, 2018.
Are you an eligible carrier and looking to increase the number of locations that you can receive funding for?
Recent clients have added between 20-50% more eligible locations to their submission, adding an addition $4M - $11M in available funding.
There is no need to hire expensive engineering firms and land surveryors to identify eligible locations. Our geolocation tools do this at a fraction of the cost and time.
Are you missing out on multiple unit locations, where funding is available for each unit? Send us your list and let us tell you.
"In our efforts to help expand broadband coverage for rural locations, Great Plains Communications contacted Service Objects to help maximize our coverage according to the FCC's Alternate Connect America Model (A-CAM). We were using engineering firms to gather data on hard to find rural locations, but they were costly - as much as $15-$18 per location - and many of the results were inaccurate.
Service Objects worked with us to obtain the most precise results at a fraction of the cost we were paying the engineering firms. Their commitment to ensuring the accuracy of the location data they provided really showed, and they won the hearts of everybody at Great Plains. We are paying significantly less per address, and they helped us find 20% more locations than we thought were possible without driving our coverage areas.
Service Objects' is the only company we have found that has a financially backed guarantee to ensure the data we submit is HUBB compliant. None of the other engineering firms we engaged came close to providing the high level of service, cost-efficiency and data accuracy that we received.
To sum it up, the simplicity and cost effectiveness of Service Objects' A-CAM solution is incredible - they beat our expectations in every way."
Rick Fitchhorn
CAD Manager
Great Plains Communications
This map identifies the areas that have been determined to be eligible for support for broadband and voice service from the FCC’s final Alternative-Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM version 2.3). A-CAM calculates costs per location in all rate-of-return carrier census blocks for the entire country. Specifically, the map identifies areas determined by the adopted cost model as eligible for support and which are served by a class of smaller carriers called rate-of-return carriers.
These areas are eligible for CAF-ACAM support.
These are ineligible areas within those rate-of-return study areas that are otherwise eligible for support. Such areas are ineligible under the decisions adopted by the Commission because either the average cost for the census block is below the funding benchmark, the carrier already serves the area with 10/1 Mbps or better broadband service utilizing FTTP or cable technology, or the area is served by an unsubsidized competitor with voice and qualifying broadband service.
These areas are served by rate-of-return carriers that are ineligible for CAF-ACAM support under the decisions adopted by the Commission.
Empty areas with no color are either located in areas served by another class of incumbent carriers, called price cap carriers, which are not eligible for this offer of CAF-ACAM support, and/or are reported as uninhabited.
Carriers accepting support will be required to offer broadband service to a specific number of locations in eligible census blocks across their entire service area in the state.
(Map and details courtesy of Federal Communications Commission - https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/maps/a-cam-offer-map/)
