FCC Maps 3G Dead Zones Eligible for the Mobility Fund

The FCC has established what is known as the Mobility Fund, this fund's sole purpose is to close the gaps that exist in our country's mobile wireless service. Specifically to assist carriers in delivering '3G' or better technology to areas which have been traditionally under-served. This fund was proposed by the FCC back in October of 2010, and they have now released a preliminary map detailing which areas are eligible for money from the Mobility Fund Phase 1.

The map below details which areas in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico are in need of assistance.

The Mobility Fund proposes to use between $100 Million and $300 Million from the USF (Universal Service Fund) which was voluntarily relinquished by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. They will accomplish this through using a reverse auction, in which the potential providers of service in identified dead zones by proposing the lowest amount of USF funding they would need to properly serve those pre-defined unserved areas.

We believe that this is a good step in the right direction, especially for those in areas that are still served by dial-up internet only and would greatly benefit from being served by technologies like 3G and 4G LTE.

We also did a 4G LTE survey a few months ago around San Diego and had some pretty interesting results. We're planning on expanding our search around the area to improve our data and to reassess the current speeds compared to when we tested them. We believe that 4G LTE should be the focus of all carriers' network development and that the FCC should similarly promote carriers to deliver 4G LTE to underserved areas rather than simple '3G or better'.