Biden White House to spend nearly $1 billion on rural, high-speed internet access
President Joe Biden's administration announced this week that it planned to spend nearly $1 billion on expanding internet access in rural areas.
The White House announced the plan to expand access to 35 states and Puerto Rico using middle-mile broadband infrastructure, which helps connect underserved areas to national internet networks.
"Access to Internet is no longer a luxury and thanks to President Biden's leadership, we are taking action to close the digital divide for everyone in America. The Middle Mile program will invest more than $900 million in the infrastructure needed to connect communities, military bases, and Tribal lands to the Internet, lower the cost of access, and increase bandwidth," said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a statement. "Much like how the interstate highway system connected every community in America to regional and national systems of highways, this program will help us connect communities across the country to regional and national networks that provide quality, affordable high-speed Internet access."
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The administration said it received over 260 applications totaling $7.47 billion in funding requests. The approved projects are expected to deploy 12,000 miles of new fiber to expand access.
In total, the administration announced exactly $930,021,354.34 in funding on Friday. Personally, I am invested in where that final 34 cents is going.
Topics Social Good Joe Biden
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
