The federal effort to expand internet access to every U.S. home has taken a major step forward with the announcement of $930 million in grants to shore up connections in dozens of places where significant connectivity gaps persist. Those places include remote parts of Alaska and rural Texas. The so-called middle mile grants are intended to trigger the laying of 12,000 miles of fiber through 35 states and Puerto Rico. The middle mile is the midsection of the infrastructure necessary to enable internet access, composed of high-capacity lines carrying lots of data quickly. The expansion is among several initiatives pushed through Congress by President Joe Biden’s administration to expand high-speed internet connectivity.
The problem is we tried this before with the subsidies and grants for a major fiber backbone that got half built and the rest of the money pocketed while prices skyrocketed and speeds barely rose. The same thing happened when broadband definitions got rewritten to define faster base speeds— ISPs increased speeds to meet the minimums but also increased the prices.
I’m worried this money will just be pocketed again.
This was my concern as well when I read this. I hope there were plans to have some sort of oversight…
Maybe there will be audits that s time?
Narrator: There would be no audits