Washington: The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced more than 42 billion U.S. dollars to expand high-speed internet access in the country.
The White House said in a press release that more than 8.5 million households and small businesses are still in areas where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable internet options.
The announcement is just one component of the administration’s efforts “to ensure that everyone in America has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet” as part of Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the White House said.
The White House compared the “largest internet funding announcement” in the country’s history to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act, which brought electricity to nearly every home and farm in the United States in the 1930s.
U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia will receive funding from the 42.45-billion-dollar Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program from Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to administer grant programs within their borders.
Awards range from 27 million dollars to over 3.3 billion dollars, with every state receiving a minimum of 107 million dollars, said the press release, adding that 19 states received allocations over 1 billion dollars with the top 10 allocations in Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
With these allocations and other Biden administration investments, all 50 states, D.C., and the territories now have the resources to connect every resident and small business to reliable, affordable high-speed internet by 2030,” the White House noted.
