January 2021

The Federal Communications Commission released its annual Broadband Deployment Report. The gap between urban and rural Americans with access to 25/3 Mbps fixed broadband service fell from 30 percentage points at the end of 2016 to 16 points at the end of 2019. Additionally, more than three-quarters of those Americans in areas newly served in 2019 (nearly 3.7 million) live in rural areas, bringing the number of rural Americans in areas served by at least 25/3 Mbps broadband service to nearly 83%, up 15 points since 2016.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted additional rules for the Digital Opportunity Data Collection to help ensure that the FCC collects precise and accurate broadband deployment data in its mission to close the digital divide. The new rules specify which fixed and mobile broadband Internet access service providers are required to report availability and/or coverage data, and adopt requirements for reporting speed and latency for fixed technologies.

In August 2015, CenturyLink accepted Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II support to deploy broadband service to over one million locations in thirty-three states. Using that support, CenturyLink has now enabled broadband service at speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps to more than 1.1 million customer locations in CAF II census blocks in those states. On a state-by-state basis, CenturyLink’s current year-end data reflect that it met or exceeded the program’s December 31, 2020 milestone in ten states. CenturyLink may not yet have reached the 100% deployment target in the other states.