The Connect America Fund (CAF) – a centerpiece of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF) High Cost program – ensures that rural communities have access to reliable high-speed Internet service at rates reasonably comparable to those in urban areas.

The program consists of a nearly a dozen modernized funds that use cost models and competitive bidding to allocate set monthly payments to carriers to deploy robust communications networks – which provide voice connections and broadband at required speeds – in unserved and underserved areas. Carriers must complete deployment over a defined timeline, with separate interim and final deployment milestone deadlines for each fund. Carriers participating in modernized funds that subsidize fixed broadband must connect a specific number of locations in eligible areas over the fund’s deployment timeline, and must report their progress in meeting these deployment obligations to USAC.

The Connect America Fund Broadband Map (CAF Map) provides a granular, location-level view of the impact of the Connect America Fund on broadband expansion in rural America. The map displays the geographic areas that are eligible for CAF support, as well as the specific fixed locations where participating carriers report offering mass-market, high speed Internet service funded by the program. The dataset reflected in the CAF Map includes address, latitude and longitude coordinates, carrier name, deployment year and minimum speeds offered for every location where CAF-supported service is available.

The CAF Map also serves as a foundation for the Connect America Fund State Map (CAF State Map), which provides a big-picture, state-level view of CAF-supported broadband deployment. The CAF State Map displays total deployment obligations by location count, total cumulative deployment reported so far by location count and total cumulative funding paid out to date – all on a state-by-state basis – by aggregating data for all carriers participating in the Connect America Fund in each state.

The deployment information in both maps comes out of USAC’s High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal, which collects and tracks CAF broadband deployment data. Carriers have until March 1 annually to submit and certify data in the HUBB for all locations deployed with CAF support during the previous calendar year. This information includes address, latitude and longitude coordinates, carrier name, filing year and available speeds. (Both maps include data tables that allow users to filter the underlying information by state, CAF program, carrier name, filing year and speed tier.) USAC independently verifies deployment to a sample of locations reported in the HUBB each year to monitor carrier compliance with CAF build-out obligations.

The current maps are based on broadband deployment data certified in the HUBB as of March 7, 2025, by carriers participating in the following Connect America Fund programs:

Please note that the CAF Map and CAF State Map do not reflect broadband deployment data for the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced ACAM) program. The FCC established Enhanced ACAM in 2023 to provide additional support to carriers participating in other CAF programs to bring faster broadband – with speeds of at least 100 megabits per second downstream and 20 megabits per second upstream (100/20 Mbps) – to more locations. In total, 368 carriers accepted FCC offers to transition to Enhanced ACAM from the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM), Revised Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Revised ACAM), Alternative Connect America Cost Model II (ACAM II) and Connect America Fund Broadband Loop Support (CAF BLS) programs.

The Enhanced ACAM support term runs from 2024 to 2038. Starting in 2024, Enhanced ACAM interim and final deployment milestones replaced ACAM, Revised ACAM and ACAM II deployment milestones for carriers that transitioned to the new fund. (These carriers were required to meet the 2023 deployment milestones of their previous funds and those deployments do appear on the CAF Map and CAF State Map.) Enhanced ACAM carriers have until the end of 2028 to complete deployment.

Please visit the Broadband Funding Map for Enhanced ACAM deployment obligations and broadband availability coverage from the National Broadband Map. Enhanced ACAM is the first CAF program to use the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) to determine deployment obligations for participating carriers. The Fabric is a standardized dataset of all locations in the U.S. where fixed broadband Internet access service is, or should be, available. It serves as the foundation for FCC collection of fixed-broadband-availability data through the Broadband Data Collection and FCC mapping of fixed-broadband availability on the National Broadband Map. Each Enhanced ACAM carrier has access to interim and final lists of required locations – which are the Location IDs from the Fabric that identify the locations where the carrier must offer service.

USAC updates the CAF Map and the CAF State Map twice a year with additional broadband deployment data filed and certified by carriers in the HUBB. Information in the map is also subject to change as carriers increase network speeds, revise geographic coordinates and address information and/or correct inaccuracies.

Note that in certain instances, the FCC cost model identifies areas as eligible for CAF support even though these areas appear to be in or near urban centers. In other instances, a carrier’s historic study area (service territory) crosses state lines, and locations deployed in one state therefore count towards deployment obligations in another state.

Also note that the Tribal Boundaries on the maps reflect the definition of Tribal lands that the FCC adopted for the purpose of awarding ACAM II support. This means that the Tribal boundaries depicted include any federally recognized Indian Tribe’s reservation, pueblo or colony, including former reservations in Oklahoma, Alaska Native regions established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlements Act (85 Stat. 688), Indian Allotments and Hawaiian Home Lands. The “former reservations in Oklahoma” are the geographic boundaries reflected in the Historical Map of Oklahoma, 1870-1890, (Oklahoma Historical Map, 1870-1890, Plate 6, Webb Publishing Company, Oklahoma City, OK (1917) (Copyright 1917, George Rainey, Enid, OK; Engraved George F. Cram Company, Chicago, IL)). The Hawaiian Home Lands are areas held in trust for Native Hawaiians by the state of Hawaii, pursuant to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921 (passed by Congress on July 9, 1921, 42 Stat. 108, et seq., as amended). Other Universal Service Fund programs, including other High Cost programs, or other federal, state, or local programs may consider different areas as Tribal lands. The Tribal Boundaries on this map should therefore not be used for determining eligibility for any program other than ACAM II.