FCC to Distribute Up to $300 Million to Help Carriers Expand Service to Rural Areas

Most of the greater Cleveland area is blanketed with 4G service, although there are pockets where 3G is as good as it gets. The further out you get, however, the spottier the coverage gets and in some places you're lucky to get 2G. This holds true for much of the U.S. In an effort to make sure that even the people living in more rural parts of the country get better mobile service the Federal Communications Commission is establishing a fund to encourage carriers to roll out 3G and 4G service in sparser areas.

The FCC is planning to award up to $300 million to mobile carriers, with funds going to the providers offering the lowest rates. The winners will be determined in a sealed, single-round auction opening on June 27th and closing on July 11th.

One condition for receiving the funds is that carriers must agree to cover at least 75 percent of the road miles within a given census tract.

It's not yet clear which mobile carriers will take the FCC's bait, but the FCC has signalled that certain parts of the country will be first in line for upgraded service, including Maine, Rocky Mountain states like Idaho and Utah, Appalachia and upstate New York.