State calls on public to participate in closing ‘digital divide’ to provide high-speed internet to all Utahns

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah announced Thursday it will receive $317 million in federal funding to address disparities in internet access and affordability for residents after the U.S. Department of Commerce accepted the state’s Digital Equity Initiative.

“High-speed Internet is no longer a luxury; it has become an absolute necessity,” President Joe Biden said in a commentary on broadband investments last year. “With this funding and other federal investments, we will be able to connect every American to reliable, high-speed internet by 2030.”

The federal government’s push to expand broadband to underserved communities as part of a $2.3 trillion American jobs plan unveiled in 2021 has drawn comparisons to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. “Broadband is the new electricity,” a White House fact sheet said.

Christopher Ali, a professor of telecommunications at Pennsylvania State University, writes that similar to the electrification of farms and homes generations ago, “rural broadband is what economists call a ‘market failure’: something the private market is unwilling to provide. Services that are important to society because of lack of return on investment.”

Acceptance of the state’s plan has pushed the project into the groundwork phase, requiring “community anchors” such as schools, libraries, health care facilities, and community support organizations to participate in internet speed tests and document deficiencies in the internet. Provide internet services to their communities.

Under the state challenge process, locations without access to Internet speeds below 25/3 Mbps are considered unserviced, while locations without access to Internet speeds below 100/20 Mbps but at or above 25/3 Mbps are considered unserviced. Considered underserved.

The challenge process is crucial as critics point to significant flaws in the national broadband map, which will determine whether a site receives funding. Ali said the map used by the FCC was deeply flawed because of the big telecom companies.

The companies self-report their data, which Alibaba says is not audited and is only required to report advertised speeds, not actual internet speeds in communities, “giving the impression that communities are getting faster speeds than consumers actually experience.” “Much more”.

The state broadband office addressed other disparities on the state map by limiting the technologies that internet providers like DSL and satellite can be considered serving communities and adding more granularity to sparsely populated areas.

Rebecca Dilger, director of the Utah Broadband Center, said this is a “generational opportunity” to make high-speed internet available to everyone in Utah.

The Broadband Availability Map, Registration and Challenge Process portal is open where anyone can find more information about the project. Individuals wishing to challenge their home or business internet speeds can submit for testing until May 28. Following community input, ISPs will have 40 days to respond to challenges to their services. The state’s Office of Broadband will make a final decision before the fall funding window opens.

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