The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that 15 bidders have secured more than $326 million in Rural Digital Opportunity Funds (RDOF) to deploy high-speed broadband to thousands of rural Georgians over the next 10 years. As a result of the recently completed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, high-speed broadband will be deployed to more than 179,000 currently unserved homes and businesses in the state. This represents nearly 99% of locations that were eligible to participate in the RDOF auction process. 

“The Georgia Broadband program has identified more than 507,000 unserved locations in the state, 181,070 of which were eligible for the RDOF auction,” said DCA Commissioner Christopher Nunn. “We are excited about this federal investment, which should help provide access to nearly one-third of our unserved areas.”   

Most locations will receive broadband service with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, which is adequate for activities such as streaming media and utilizing home security systems and smartphone devices. Eighty-five percent will receive gigabit-speed broadband, which is even faster. Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium, Windstream, and Charter Communications received the most sizeable awards in the state, in terms of both dollar amount and locations to be served. 

“This FCC announcement is exciting for a variety of reasons,” said Deana Perry, Executive Director of the Georgia Broadband program. “In addition to the real impact it will have on rural households, once connected, these funds represent the most significant investment yet toward rural broadband.” 

The Georgia Broadband program provides a variety of resources and technical assistance to aid communities. The Georgia Broadband Availability Map is a first-of-its-kind tool that provides location-specific data about broadband service. For more information, visit broadband.georgia.gov.