Infrastructure

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) invested $10.3 million in high-speed broadband infrastructure that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 2,875 rural households, 10 pre-subscribed farms, three pre-subscribed businesses and two educational facilities in Yates County, New York. Yates County will use a $10.3 million ReConnect Program grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).

For the past several years, the Government Technology editorial team has picked apart State of the State addresses, looking for clues about new initiatives and areas of focus that will touch technology. As of Feb 3, 2020, about two-thirds of governors have delivered these speeches. Increasingly, governors are using their platforms to underscore the importance of making sure all residents, regardless of where they live, have options to get online. Internet access has profound impacts on opportunities in education, jobs, health care and nearly every other facet of modern life.

At rallies and town halls across Iowa, health care, climate change, and education were the top concerns, no matter which candidate was on stage. That’s in line with Gallup polling, which shows infrastructure as thirteenth behind more common concerns like health care, education and economic policy. But the simple question of internet access sits in the background of many of those issues.

In the coming years, 5G wireless Internet stands poised to remake the online world, its unprecedented speed enabling advances in everything from public safety to virtual reality. Within this progress, however, there exists another near-certainty — segments of the population will be left out of the advantages.

After deciding to shut New York and Alaska out of the new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has made another change that could reduce or eliminate funding available for broadband providers in other US states.

On Dec 9, 48 senators wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to say that, as the FCC considers new rules in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), it should emphasize the importance of sustainable networks that meet the needs of consumers now and in the future.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition released its 2020 Policy Roadmap, outlining the path forward for community anchor institution (CAI) broadband. Schools, libraries, healthcare providers, and other CAIs rely on high-quality broadband to provide essential services to their communities. It is imperative that policymakers, industry, and anchor institutions collaborate to connect all CAIs to affordable, gigabit broadband – a key step in closing the digital divide. The SHLB Coalition will pursue the following policy priorities in 2020:

In his dissenting statement, Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks objected to a sentence included since the initial draft of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order. The Starks dissent states: “The version of the Order now before us excludes from RDOF any area that the Commission ‘know[s] to be awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program or other similar federal or state broadband subsidy programs, or those subject to enforceable broadband deployment obligations.’” (emphasis in original)

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a $9.87 million investment in four infrastructure projects that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 4,527 households and 215 businesses in rural Maine. USDA announced the following projects:

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested $1.6 million in a high-speed broadband infrastructure project that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 1,492 rural households, 27 pre-subscribed businesses, six educational facilities, four pre-subscribed farms, three critical community facilities and a health care center. Wecom Inc.