A White House initiative to provide internet access to all Americans has cleared Wyoming for the largest federal investment in broadband yet.
The Biden-Harris administration has been working with states to create proposals and map data for a massive broadband build out. Wyoming was approved to receive over $347 million in grant money to work toward “internet for all” in the state. The approval means the state can now request access to the funds and get started making its proposed statewide broadband service a reality.
“That is $347 million to help connect over 39,000 homes and businesses in the state,” said Courtney Dozier with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
The goal is to create a network of connectivity across the state that ensures Federal Communications -Commission (FCC) regulatory broadband speeds. That means at least 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads.
Dozier expects Wyoming will have “shovels in the ground” by 2025.
Where’s all the construction?
The Biden administration had received criticism that the “internet for all” initiative, or the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, hadn’t connected any homes since its announcement in 2021.
Republicans and Trump’s appointee to the FCC, Brandon Carr, have pointed to bureaucracy and mandates within the BEAD program that place regulatory pressure on private companies and slow the build-out. However, the NTIA says it’s a massive project and a lot of money to hand out with proper preparation.
“With this historic level of investment. $42 billion from Congress and the Biden-Harris administration that we’re not likely to get again. We need to come up with a plan to connect everyone,” said Dozier.
Wyoming, like other states, had to plan and complete a detailed map of where internet connection exists, and where it does not. A map of underserved (slow internet speeds) and unserved (very slow speeds or no connection) areas was necessary.
“We have been working really closely with states and territories to receive their proposals that they submitted on what they’re going to do to accomplish this goal,” said Dozier. “How are they going to spend this money and make sure that at the end of the day, everyone in Wyoming that’s currently un- and underserved … has that access at the end of this program.”
Wyoming last year was pre-approved for the funds so the state could incorporate federal investments in the planning stage. Now that Wyoming’s plan is finalized, $347,877,921.27 in funding can begin to be put into action.
$300 million alone won’t be enough
While this is the largest federal investment made in Wyoming for the purpose of broadband connectivity, it’s by no means the only. In a state as vast as Wyoming, full connection is an expensive endeavor.
In 2018, the Wyoming state government set aside some $10 million for the Wyoming Broadband Advisory Council (part of the Broadband office), funds that would help start a mapping project for the state and promote broadband expansion.
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began the ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, which allowed state governments, cooperatives and corporations to apply for development of broadband services in rural areas that might otherwise be too expensive for market-incentivized building to occur. Wyoming saw funding from that program in 2020 and 2022
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has given Wyoming over $70 million in competitive grant funding from the Capital Projects Fund for last mile broadband connection. This program awarded five companies $70 million for development in the past. Visionary Broadband was recently awarded another allocation of these funds by the Wyoming Business Council Broadband Office for the additional fiber project in Cheyenne.
Despite all these investments, the act of completed, working, high-speed connections will take time. Dozier said the administration and the federal government is ready to keep working on this project well into the future.
“This is a huge priority for you and so we’re going to continue to dedicate the kind of time and resources to land the program over the next five to six years.” said Dozier.
Fiber in my backyard?
In previous interviews with WPR, former head of the Wyoming Broadband Office, Elaine Zemple, said, “I don’t think we will reach 100 percent. But it’ll be in the high 90 percent,” in response to the federal goal of “internet for all.”
This was for two reasons. One being the difficult, vast and undeveloped terrain of Wyoming. And two, the privacy wishes of those who want to disconnect as much as possible.
The NTIA appears understanding of some Wyomingites’ desire to unplug – or choosing to not receive access in the first place – so long as the reasoning is there.
“If you’ve built a hunting lodge in the middle of [Wyoming], in the middle of nowhere, because you want to disconnect, we’re not going to force you to get internet service,” said Dozier.
However, she said an objection of some kind would have to be made.
“[Maybe] a broadband serviceable location that does not want it. Maybe they have religious objections. Maybe there’s other objections. Because don’t forget, too, that the person living in that home might not always be living in that home.”
The Biden administration would like to see fiber laid out as much as possible, alongside other broadband components made here in the United States,although some of those restrictions were recently lifted. The fiber focus did not come without criticism, including in Wyoming, but the administration appears open to working with states to use alternative technologies.
“Based on that calculation and the priorities for the program, it is a kind of fiber preference,” said Dozier. “We are working with Wyoming and every state and territory to support them pushing out the most reliable technologies as far as they can, while ensuring that everyone is getting access to high speed, affordable, reliable Internet, which may take on various different forms.”
Some of those technologies are hybrid networks or fixed-wireless connections that can be used to more cost-effectively get high speed service around mountains and out to rural, small communities.
Public involvement
Dozier stressed that the public should be involved in this process. Part of Wyoming’s map-making process included talking with nonprofits, local governments and internet service providers about where the internet can or should be built.
But that doesn’t cover everyone, according to Dozier. She says the public still needs to voice their concerns, as they have been offered to do so in the past.
“[Continue] to engage with your state broadband office, with your local governments, is going to be key to the success of the program,” she said.