$1 billion in grants will be awarded by the NTIA, but during a webinar from the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition, speakers noted that entities need to be at the ready with their planning and objectives to be competitive. Additionally, fiber is prioritized above other technologies, and geographic areas without reliable broadband will be prioritized.
According to the NTIA notice, funding was appropriated by Congress “to encourage the expansion and extension of middle mile infrastructure to reduce the cost of connecting unserved and underserved areas to the backbone of the Internet” and to “promote broadband connection resiliency through the creation of alternative network connection paths that can be designed to prevent single points of failure on a broadband network.”
The middle mile is “crucial” to connectivity, it reads. The NTIA is offering webinars on the grant money and posts the schedule at the BroadbandUSA website.
In the midst of such continual federal funding announcements, Texas municipalities including cities, counties and school districts continue to move forward on solutions for access, using funds from their own budgets, partnerships and already available grant monies.
Gregg County, whose county seat is Longview, plans to unveil its broadband plan during Wednesday’s county commissioners’ meeting. The county is part of the East Texas Council of Governments, with whom they’ve been working, and counties across the state have been steadily releasing their broadband plans this spring.
The South Texas city of Pharris closing in on its fiber project, TeamPharr.net, a network to provide more reliable Internet to some 200,000 residential and business accounts. According to the U.S. Census, there are almost 80,000 residents.
Reservations for the service are being accepted at the website, and the city’s projected finish dates are nearing. The city installed Wi-Fi in its parks about two years ago as part of its Community Parks Safety Project.
Austin Independent School District is moving forward on a plan to install telecommunications monopoles to provide a private LTE service for students. It will also provide students with LTE-enabled devices. Project Lighthouse is a partnership including Austin, Branch Communications and the school district that will allow AISD primary use of the monopoles, which could be leased back in the future.
The cost of devices and related hardware will be covered by a grant from the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund. Branch Communications will build the towers at no cost to the district in exchange for providing remaining tower space to mobile carriers.
Nine campuses have been identified for the project, according to the website. Installation is expected to begin this year.
