Commerce Department doles out almost $7 million in first round of broadband mapping grants
October 6, 2009
The states of California, North Carolina, Indiana, and Vermont were the first to receive federal funds from the $7.2 billion earmarked for broadband infrastructure projects under the Obama administration's recovery act. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said that it received applications from all 50 states and five U.S. territories, and plans to disburse more money soon.
The first round of projects is aimed at producing a broadband map of the U.S. Discovering information about broadband coverage, speed of access, and availability, experts say, is critically important to future decisions about the construction of new broadband infrastructure.
Although broadband access is widespread in America's cities, rural areas frequently lack any kind of low-cost access to high-speed internet service, which experts say can hurt rural economies.
The culmination of the research being undertaken now will be a proposal to Congress in February of 2010, detailing the state of America's broadband networks and the best way in which to expand access to as many Americans as possible, according to the FCC.
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