GeoLinks Named Winning Bidder of $234.9 Million in FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction to Bridge the Digital Divide and Expand Rural Internet in California, Arizona and Nevada

Company is Largest Winning Bidder in Arizona, Third Largest in California and 12th Largest in the United States

CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GeoLinks, one of the fastest growing Internet and phone providers in America, has been named a winning bidder of $234.9 million dollars from the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to bring high-speed broadband service to unserved homes and businesses. The award was announced via Public Notice on December 7.

“We founded GeoLinks on the principle of digital equity,” said Skyler Ditchfield, Co-Founder and CEO of GeoLinks. “This funding from the FCC will allow us to build significant infrastructure to bring needed connectivity to rural homes and businesses. We believe the Internet is the great equalizer and these buildouts will be particularly meaningful in bridging the digital divide.”

RDOF is the FCC’s next step in bridging the digital divide and funding the deployment of broadband networks in rural America. Between the two phases of the RDOF program, the FCC will direct up to $20.4 billion over ten years to finance up to gigabit speed broadband networks in unserved rural areas.

In 2018 GeoLinks was awarded $87.8 million in the Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) auction to bridge the digital divide.

GeoLinks

GeoLinks is one of the nation’s leading telecommunications companies and competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) public utilities, nationally recognized for its innovative Internet and Hosted Voice solutions. Headquartered in Southern California and ranked on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America three-years running, GeoLinks delivers Enterprise-Grade Internet, Digital Voice, SD-WAN, Cloud On-ramping, Layer 2 Transport, and both Public and Private Turnkey Network Construction expertly tailored for businesses and Anchor Institutions nationwide. More information on the company can be found at www.GeoLinks.com.

More about Rural Digital Opportunity Fund:

A total of 180 bidders received financial awards totaling $9.2 billion in the RDOF reverse auction to expand broadband across 49 states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The funding, which will be distributed over the next 10 years, will bring high-speed broadband to over 5.2 million homes and businesses. Nearly 100% of these locations will be receiving broadband with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, with more than 85% receiving gigabit-speed broadband. The official announcement can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-auction-bring-broadband-over-10-million-rural-americans.