AT&T leverages CAF-II to extend 10 Mbps broadband in rural Louisiana

AT&T (NYSE: T) is leveraging a portion of money it accepted from the second phase of the FCC's Connect America Fund (CAF-II) to bring broadband to nearly 75,000 rural homes and businesses in Louisiana.

The service provider said it would receive about $28 million annually over the next six years to meet the FCC's CAF commitment in the state.

Using a mix of broadband wireless and traditional wireline facilities, AT&T will deliver up to 10/1 Mbps broadband speeds.

"The new CAF funds, combined with AT&T's latest technology, will help us significantly close the broadband Internet access gap in our state," said Sonia Perez, President of AT&T Louisiana, in a release.

AT&T did not disclose what percentage of customers would be served by wireless and wireline.

Joining fellow large telcos CenturyLink, Frontier and CenturyLink, AT&T accepted a total of $427 million in CAF-II funding, enabling it bring wireline, wireless broadband to rural areas in 18 states.

The service provider will meet the commitments of the CAF II program using a mix of traditional wireline and wireless technologies. In the case of wireless, AT&T will construct new wireless towers in previously unserved areas.

Earlier, AT&T accepted up to $100 million from the CAF Phase I to bring broadband to about 129,000 locations that did not have access to at least a 768/200 Kbps connection.

For more:
- see the release

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