Efforts To Provide Rural Broadband Are Moving Fast, One Expert Says
The lack of broadband mapping remains a key hurdle to the successful rural deployment of internet technology, but one industry hand says efforts underway to figure out where the gaps are, are now moving at top speed. Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield said no one really knows where the unserved and underserved areas are.
“We have not done a good job as a country on mapping, up until recent efforts. So, that will be the deciding factor of where that funding goes.”
She was referring to the $65 billion for broadband deployment in the Senate-passed infrastructure bill that now goes to the House and the newly announced USDA ReConnect grants. But Bloomfield said the good news is that Congress earlier released mapping money.
“Congress, thankfully, at the end of last year, actually finally released $98 million, that they appropriated, to allow the FCC to get very ‘granular’ about mapping.”
And Bloomfield says those efforts are now moving at break-neck speed, given the funding came late. But once the FCC, USDA, and Commerce’s NTIA have the maps, they can answer the key question of where holes exist and how best the federal government can plug them. She added clearing supply chain bottlenecks for equipment, agency coordination, and fixing grant administration issues will all be key in finally closing the ‘digital divide’ separating rural and urban America.