Summary:

CAF-BLS provides support for voice and broadband service, including stand-alone broadband. The fund helps carriers recover the difference between loop costs associated with providing voice and/or broadband service and consumer loop revenues.

Eligible Recipients:

Internet Service Provider

Eligible Recipients Detail:

Incumbent Price Cap Carrier; Internet Service Provider

Eligible Purpose:

Last Mile Infrastructure

Eligible Purpose Detail:

The 2018 order requires carriers receiving CAF-BLS to comply with the following deployment obligations, calculated using the most recently available FCC Form 477 data:

-Carriers that are less than 20 percent deployed at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps must use 35 percent of their CAF-BLS support to deploy 25/3 Mbps broadband service
-Carriers that are greater than 20 percent but less than 40 percent deployed at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps must use 25 percent of their CAF-BLS support to deploy 25/3 Mbps broadband service
-Carriers that are at least 40 percent deployed at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps must use 20 percent of their CAF-BLS support to deploy 25/3 Mbps broadband service
-Carriers that receive CAF-BLS support may elect one of two methods for determining their deployment obligations over the five-year term (2019-2024) of the program. Deployment obligations would be calculated by dividing the applicable CAF-BLS funding by:

Carriers that receive CAF-BLS support may elect one of two methods for determining their deployment obligations over the program’s five-year term. Deployment obligations would be calculated by dividing the applicable CAF-BLS funding by:

-The average cost of providing 25/3 Mbps service, based on the weighted average cost per loop of carriers that have deployed 25/3 Mbps service to 95 percent or more of the locations in their study area, or 150 percent of the weighted average cost per loop of companies with similar density and level of deployment, whichever is greater (Weighted Average Cost Method)
-Or the ACAM calculation of the cost per location of providing 25/3 Mbps service in the unserved census blocks in the carrier’s study area (ACAM Method)