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Broadband Infrastructure Program
Content tagged with "Broadband Infrastructure Program"
Pennsylvania Snubs Community Broadband, Small ISPs In Latest Broadband Grant Round
Telecom monopolies have hoovered up the lion’s share of $214 million recently doled out by the Pennsylvania state Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP), with cooperatives, smaller ISPs, and community-owned networks left largely out in the cold.
It’s not a surprising move for a state long considered politically hostile to community-owned and operated broadband networks, though industry experts say this latest round of awards was particularly egregious when it comes to dodgy politics and its total lack of any real transparency.
According to an announcement by the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA), this $204 million in Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP) grant awards will help fund 53 projects in 42 counties across Pennsylvania, connecting 40,000 homes and businesses, bringing high-speed Internet to over 100,000 Pennsylvanians.
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The awards were funded with the state’s Capital Projects Fund allocation. After matching funds by winning bidders are included, the total broadband investment is expected to exceed $407 million. A complete breakdown of all grant award winners can be found here.
Verizon was the biggest grant award winner, nabbing $78.3 million. Other big grant award winners were Comcast ($61.7 million), Windstream ($12 million) Frontier ($3.5 million) and Brightspeed ($782,000). A few small private ISPs also won awards including Adams Cable ($387,969) Upward Broadband ($1,476,288) and Alleghenies Broadband ($1,809,524).
Wired for Good: Exploring Rural Connectivity in West Virginia - Episode 597 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
In this latest episode of the podcast, Chris is joined by Derek Barr, Assistant General Manager at Hardy Telecommunications in West Virginia. Together, they delve into the intricate world of nonprofit cooperatives, focusing on the journey of Hardy Telecommunications since its inception in 1953.
Originally established to fill the service gap left by larger providers, Hardy Telecommunications has since expanded its offerings to include broadband services, becoming a lifeline for rural communities with about 6,100 access lines and nearly 5,100 broadband customers.
Derek candidly shares the rollercoaster ride of being a small provider, from wearing multiple hats to navigating the maze of regulatory changes. They explore the ripple effects of federal funding programs like the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) on their expansion efforts.
But it's not just about challenges; Chris and Derek paints a picture of hope through partnerships with counties and emphasizes the ongoing need for support and funding to keep the broadband momentum going in rural areas.
This show is 36 minutes long and can be played on this page or using the podcast app of your choice with this feed.
Transcript below.
We want your feedback and suggestions for the show: please e-mail us or leave a comment below.
Listen to other episodes here or see other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.
Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative Should Light Up First Fiber Users By August
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) has begun construction on an ambitious new fiber deployment that will soon bring affordable, multi-gigabit fiber access to all of the cooperative’s existing electrical customers in rural Northern Florida.
Cooperative officials tell ILSR its three-phase build out is well underway, with a beta anticipated this summer and the first commercial customers connected by August. SVEC Communications Director Jon Little says the cooperative’s goal remains to deliver affordable fiber to all 20,000 of the cooperative's current electric customers by the end of 2026.
“We’ve broken our territory into three phases based partly on population or possible customers,” Little said.
The cooperative’s recently created subsidiary, Rapid Fiber Internet, will interface directly with subscribers, while Conexon manages deployment of more than 4,100 miles of fiber. Electrical users won’t see price hikes; the projected $93 million deployment cost will be funded by a combination of grants and loans paid back exclusively through user subscriptions.
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Little told ISLR that make ready (preparing utility poles for fiber attachments) prep and engineering for phase one are complete, and make ready construction for phase one is roughly 40 percent complete. He added that primary fiber construction for phase one is roughly twenty percent complete.
“We’re hoping that we will have a group of beta customers starting next month,” Little said. “We want to go about a month to get their feedback, and so we’re still hoping sometime in August to offer hookups to our members on that first feeder.”