{"id":36852,"date":"2022-12-08T19:36:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T02:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-awarded-5-9-million-to-figure-out-how-to-use-100-million-to-improve-broadband\/"},"modified":"2022-12-09T02:36:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T02:36:50","slug":"colorado-awarded-5-9-million-to-figure-out-how-to-use-100-million-to-improve-broadband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-awarded-5-9-million-to-figure-out-how-to-use-100-million-to-improve-broadband\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado awarded $5.9 million to figure out how to use $100 million to improve broadband"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cellphone
Cellphone and rural broadband towers are seen in Alamosa County, Colorado with the Sangre de Cristos in the distance on Jan. 22, 2021. (John McEvoy\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado will soon receive $100 million to improve broadband service statewide as part of the massive U.S. infrastructure bill passed last year. But first, the state was awarded $5 million to help it plan how exactly it will go about delivering \u201cInternet for All,\u201d the federal program to keep internet speeds fast and costs low.<\/p>\n

The Department of Commerce\u2019s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is expected to announce Colorado\u2019s grant Thursday, also awarded the state $897,119 to hire staff to build a digital equity plan to provide more affordable service.<\/p>\n

\u201cEquitable access to broadband allows Coloradans to receive telehealth services, education and job opportunities,\u201d Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Every state was allotted $100 million to improve broadband service as part of BEAD, short for Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. That\u2019s the $42.5 billion program created after last year\u2019s infrastructure bill passed.<\/p>\n

The planning awards differ by state and only about a dozen states and territories have received them so far. To date, NTIA has awarded $80 million in planning funds, an NTIA spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

South Dakota scored $2.6 million, Idaho got $4.4 million and Louisiana received $2 million, according to the Internet for All map from the NTIA. The other states and territories announced so far \u2013 Nebraska, Utah, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Puerto Rico \u2013 all received $5 million.<\/p>\n

Every state that receives BEAD planning funds \u2013 all 50 states plus six territories have applied \u2013 must put together a five-year plan on how it will use the money to get internet to those who don\u2019t have it. The planning grants can be used to identify unserved or underserved locations, train employees and create a timeline to complete infrastructure that actually delivers fast internet to communities.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Broadband Office already has a system in place to get started. Last year, it hired Brandy Reitter as its executive director and her team has been busy making sure they apply for all broadband grants and funding available from the federal government. Reitter has said that there\u2019s between $500 million and nearly $1 billion available to Colorado and she plans to focus on fiber-based internet service with speeds of at least 100 megabits per second down and 20 Mbps up.<\/p>\n

Reitter wasn\u2019t available for a comment but her boss provided one:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exciting grant builds upon our work to connect over 99% of Coloradans to affordable, high-speed broadband in the next five years,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. \u201cWe are continuing to save people money on internet, making sure that no matter where you live, you have access to internet you can count on and we look forward to continued partnership with the federal government to achieve our bold goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Digital equity grants are part of massive infrastructure bill passed by Congress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,28,275,2068],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-internet","tag-telecommunication-equipment"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36852"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}