nd businesses per mile Rural healthcare facilities The goal is to enable providers in rural and high-cost areas to offer services at reasonably comparable rates for similar services in urban areas. The portion of the A- CAM that applies to schools and libraries is known as the E-rate. The E-rate subsidizes Internet access and infrastructure costs needed for high-speed Internet access. A-CAM Implementations In February 2016, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that recommended support for broadband services as well as the existing phone subsidies as a universal service. The proposed rule would gradually eliminate access fees between long-distance and local telephone companies and offer to replace high- cost support with the A-CAM. The FCC gave rural providers a choice of staying with high-cost subsidies or moving to A-CAM payments. The Connect America Fund funds support new projects and maintenance of existing broadband. Additionally, there are funds for subsidizing broadband for rural healthcare facilities and hospitals. The goal is to bring these costs down to the same level as healthcare facilities in urban areas. The FCC stated that a guaranteed rate of return removes the incentive to operate efficiently because rate www.TechnicalPDF.com of return guarantees a certain profit regardless of possible operating inefficiencies. The FCC introduced competitive reverse auctions for granting money for non-served areas. With reverse auctions, organizations win grants for low bids for subsidies needed to upgrade infrastructure rather than high bids. Carriers in these rural areas had a choice of remaining on the high-cost subsidies or participating in the A-CAM reverse auctions to obtain funding. Because the A-CAM supports new projects and maintenance of existing projects, most rural providers that had already upgraded their infrastructure to fiber service opted not to sign up for the A-CAM. Rather, they kept their high-cost subsidies. In contrast, rural providers that had not yet upgraded their network