$7.2 billion payout for national, rural broadband begins

The first $2 billion of $7.2 billion in Recovery Act money to be used to establish broadband service across the nation is being distributed.

Vice President Joe Biden made the announcement Dec. 17.

The money is separate from that used by pilot projects such as the Oregon Health Network project.

The first money, $183 million, was awarded to 18 broadband projects benefiting 17 states and has already been matched by over $46 million in private capital, according to the White House.

The entire $7 billion will be spent within the next year and projects must be substantially completed within two years of receiving funding.

Focus of the awards is on the “middle mile” – the infrastructure that connects the Internet backbone to communities across the nation, in much the same way as the Oregon Health Network will connect hospitals, clinics and other businesses to a hub.

Private servers will take advantage of that federally funded infrastructure to install the “final mile” connections to homes and businesses.

Some Recovery Act money will be available to those private servers as well. The awards to those private companies come with requirements for “open interconnection,” meaning that companies must make any infrastructure funded with taxpayer dollars available for interconnection with other networks.

According to the plan, funding also will be available for computers, equipment, networking, hardware and software, and basic digital training at public computer centers such as libraries and community colleges.

The Broadband Initiatives Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will receive $2.5 billion of the budget to use as grants, loans and grant/loan combinations for rural communities in specific.

The U. S. Department of Commerce will manage $4.7 billion in funds allocated for the Broadband Technology Opportunties program that will expand broadband infrastructure into unserved and underserved areas and provide equipment and training.’

It is hoped that broadband connections will blossom and even boom as the Internet did in the 1980s and 1990s after the federal government invested in “backbone” connections.

Projects that received the first money included the North Georgia Network Cooperative which received $33.5 million to bring fiberoptic cable to eight counties in the impoverished Appalachian region of northern Georgia and North Carolina.

The fiber ring will directly connect 245 community institutions, including public schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and government facilities.

The proposed fiber ring also includes 2,600 interconnection points that will allow Internet service providers to build out last-mile connections to end users.

The project will also deliver last-mile service to approximately 24,000 households in previously inaccessible and unaffordable areas.

The plan is expected to create jobs in the broadband and construction industries immediately, and facilitate the development of business of all kinds in the long run.