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Pennsylvania to FCC: Keep broadband internet cash in state | TribLIVE.com
Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania to FCC: Keep broadband internet cash in state

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
VulnerableInternetJPEG08dca
Cables connecting phone, cable and Internet service come out of a wall connector in the home space exploration engineering office of Mike Loucks Thursday, March 26, 2015, in Friday Harbor, Wash., in the San Juan Islands. Loucks lost Internet and phone service during a 10-day outage on the island in 2013. Other regions around the country also have fallen dark in recent years, sometimes for days at a time, because of failures or accidents affecting the nation’s broadband infrastructure. The failures have revealed vulnerabilities in the backbone of the nation’s high-speed Internet highway, which often lacks the detour routes necessary to quickly restore service when outages occur outside of major cities. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
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FILE - This June 19, 2015, file photo, shows the Federal Communications Commission building in Washington. Cellphone and broadband providers are excluding some video from data caps, meaning consumers have more data available for other apps and services. But the net neutrality rules from the Federal Communications Commission don’t ban these practices, saying it could benefit consumers in some cases. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is staking its claim to more than $23 million in federal funding that Verizon turned down to expand high-speed internet service to rural customers in the state.

The Federal Communication Commission's Connect America Fund provides funding to telecommunications providers to build new network infrastructure or upgrade existing broadband networks in regions that lack it. Companies that take the money must agree to offer fast internet speeds as well as meet other targets.

Verizon was eligible for nearly $23.3 million — nearly half of the total federal allotment to Pennsylvania — but declined to accept the money, which Pennsylvania officials fear could wind up going to a provider in another state through a competitive bidding process.

A Verizon representative did not respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has asked the FCC to ensure the money stays in Pennsylvania, while U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., also called on the FCC to keep the funding in the state.

“Losing all or part of this funding would be unfair to Pennsylvania residents in rural and high-cost areas and contrary to the FCC's goal of ensuring broadband access for all,” he wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Casey noted that Pennsylvania telephone subscribers consistently contribute more than $100 million to the federal universal service fund, which supports the broadband program.

Twenty percent of Pennsylvanians living in rural areas lack access to broadband internet, according to an FCC report cited by Casey. The number rises to as high as 69 percent in some rural counties.

Public Utility Commission spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen said Wednesday the commission hopes to “find a way to ensure the citizens of Pennsylvania continue to benefit.” Keeping the money rejected by Verizon in Pennsylvania would entail “finding somebody else to step up and accept that funding,” he said.