President Joe Biden is getting closer to distributing more than $40 billion in funding to support broadband expansion nationwide as part of his administration’s goal to connect all Americans to high-speed internet by 2030.
The funding, authorized in Biden’s 2021 bipartisan infrastructure package, will be distributed proportionally to states based on need with each state receiving at least $100 million. Monday’s allocations were made using broadband coverage maps that were recently updated to include more than one million new locations.
“Just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered electricity to every home in America through his Rural Electrification Act, the announcement is part of President Biden’s broader effort to deliver investments, jobs, and opportunities directly to working and middle-class families across the country,” a White House official said in a statement Monday.
States will be expected to submit their plans for using the funding by December. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), housed in the Commerce Department, plans to approve these plans before next spring when it will begin allocating 20 percent of a state’s authorized funding and infrastructure deployment can begin. By the end of 2025, at least 80 percent of the funding will be allocated.
The White House is expected to release the amounts each state received by Monday afternoon.
Earlier this month, NTIA announced $930 million for 35 “middle-mile” broadband construction projects that connect large fiber networks to smaller, local networks that can already reach homes and businesses across the country.
The Biden administration is expected to invest more than $90 billion to expand equitable and affordable internet access nationwide. As part of the American Rescue Plan, more than $25 billion has been authorized to build out broadband infrastructure and subsidize the cost of connected devices for low-income people.
“The Middle Mile program is a force multiplier in our efforts to connect everyone in America,” NTIA administration Alan Davidson said in a statement earlier this month. “Middle Mile infrastructure brings capacity to our local networks and lowers the cost for deploying future local networks.”
I wonder if it will be a repeat of last time where telecom companies took the money and did nothing with it
I’m hopeful that at least a quarter of it will make it to homes/areas that need it
Are you really expecting something different? If so, step on over here and look at this bridge I have for sale.
Oh great, 40B to go straight into comcast and att’s pockets while they deny that they have any obligation to provide any upgrades. Fucking nationalize these services already, it’s ridiculous that we’re going to continue publicly funding them while they maintain near complete monopolies and disregard the public’s mandates.
A-fucking-men… We’re ALREADY paying for it as a nation… Why the fuck do companies get to socialize costs and privatize profits… If I make a certain amount of money I’m no longer eligible for government assistance.
If we need these things for society to function then FORCE THEM or NATIONALIZE them… But nope, the only thing palatable for “BoTh SiDeS” is to throw money at private companies and watch as the 3 letter chucklefucks and board-parasites buy more vacation homes…
We can’t do that. These companies already bought and paid for these politicians.
Let’s hope the ISPs don’t just pocket all the money like the last time.
Narrator: “They did.”
doubt
A friend of mine had to pay back unemployment benefits because they miscalculated something and gave him “too much”. These guys literally scam the government and gouge their customers with government enforced monopolies for record breaking profits then the government gives them more money. This country is a joke.
You’ve got the government they paid for.
Now if we could get someone to actually build something out instead of just pocketing the money we’ll be golden.
Or holding them responsible for the moneythey’ve already stolen from tax payers in past broadband subsidies.
Remember when they did this last time pepperidge farms remembers.
So another 40 billion dollars paid to Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon. Surly this time they will buildout the fiber they promised to build in the 90’s.
Uh, hey, what happened to that $400+ billion they already got?
