Deb Collins
Lincoln, November 21, 2023- The Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) will release alist of areas available for bid as well as starting prices for bidding units for its upcoming 2024Reverse Auction (NUSF-131/P.O.2). Funds utilized in the Reverse Auction are made availablethrough the redistribution of Nebraska Universal Service Fund (NUSF) support.
Beginning in January, the 2024 NUSF Reverse Auction will seek to provide broadband capablevoice service to rural areas where telecommunication carriers Frontier and Windstream havetraditionally provided only voice service. More than $21 million in NUSF support that was eitherunused or withheld from the two companies will be available in the 2024 proceeding.
Interested providers are encouraged to complete a pre-auction application form. The form can befound and downloaded on the Reverse Auction NUSF-131 page of the PSC website.
A reverse auction begins with an established starting price for each bidding unit, with thewinning bidder required to provide service of at least 100 megabits per second up and down toselect areas. During successive rounds of the auction the price for the bidding unit is lowereduntil there is a winning bidder. Bidding ends when there is one bidder remaining for any givenbidding unit, and the overall bids for areas are under the $21 million available budget.
A list of available areas and starting prices will be posted on the Reverse Auction NUSF-131page by Wednesday, November 22