Biden administration announces $42 bn high-speed internet programme

Washington : The administration of US President Joe Biden has announced a more than $42 billion plan to expand high-speed internet access in the country.

The White House said in a press release on Monday 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, Xinhua news agency reported.

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 US in the 1930s.

US states, territories and the District of Columbia will receive funding from the $42.45-billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment programme from Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to administer grant programmes within their borders.

Awards range from $27 million to over $3.3 billion, with every state receiving a minimum of $107 million, said the press release, adding that 19 states received allocations over $1 billion 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.