Abbott Meets With Laredo Business Leaders After Receiving Broadband Award

Gov. Greg Abbott received the Broadband Trailblazer Award earlier this week in downtown Laredo at the offices of MileOne.

It was touted as the first award of its kind as it is led by various technology companies such as AT&T and Texas Broadband Now in recognition of the governor’s commitment to ensuring every Texan has access to high-speed, reliable Internet.

The award was given to Abbott as he made broadband access an emergency item for the 87th Legislative Session, where he signed several broadband-related bills into law last year — including House Bill 5, which expands access to broadband Internet across Texas by requiring the Broadband Development Council to develop a statewide broadband plan for guiding short- and long-term goals for robust broadband infrastructure throughout Texas.

Under Abbott, the Broadband Development Office and the first long-term broadband plan in the state were established.

Abbott called broadband a tool that is essential in today’s world, as it is important for businesses to use it to compete against one another. It’s also essential for businesses to be able to reach their customers or stay connected with their supplies. He also called it essential for education — whether at the elementary level or university level — and called it important for health care and mental care services.

Members of MileOne and the Laredo Economic Development Corporation were at the award ceremony.

“One thing that Texas does extraordinarily well is economic development, and we work with local economic development corporations like the one in Laredo,” Abbott said.

After the press conference, several MileOne officials and several other businesses were able to meet with the governor and his team. MileOne Program Director Cesar G. Hernandez said that the meeting was very productive.

“He also wanted to visit with small businesses and entrepreneurs and to hear their stories about to see how they are doing and how they utilize the MileOne program,” Hernandez said. “As an innovation hub and a program that utilizes high-speed Internet to be able to conduct business and the members take advantage of what we offer here, it was important for him to come here and get a sense of how we really use that broadband interconnectivity initiative and see how expanding that broadband interconnectivity in our community would make it a lot better for our small business owners and entrepreneurs to be able to run their businesses.”

Laredo Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Gene Lindgrenwas also there and stated he was glad the governor visited their downtown offices. He said they were able to show what they can do when a business center opens and helps entrepreneurs get a kick-start in their ventures.

“We were honored that the governor came to Laredo for this event and humbled that our beautiful downtown facility MileOne was the chosen venue,” Lindgren said. “MileOne provides co-working, incubator and launchpad programs helping both local and international entrepreneurs launch and expand their businesses, and several have already graduated and opened their own brick-and-mortar sites, many in downtown and inner city. Laredo is somewhat underserved with high-speed Internet access for a number of reasons, and the programs outlined in today’s announcement are certainly welcomed.”

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