Pennsylvania gets $6.6 million downpayment for expanding internet access

[FakeNoose]

(link) https://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2022/12/08/pennsylvania-broadband-internet-access-funding-wolf/stories/202212080119

Pennsylvania has received a downpayment of $6.6 million from the federal government to expand broadband services and help ensure that residents have the skills necessary to compete in a digital world.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced the grant in Harrisburg on Thursday. The funds, which will be distributed through the Pennsylvania Broadband Authority, were part of the $65 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress last year.

As many as 800,000 Pennsylvanians are without internet access, according to the state. County agencies throughout the state have been busy mapping broadband dark spots in their areas, information that will be submitted to the Federal Communications Commission.

Updated FCC maps will be used to determine where internet infrastructure needs are greatest and therefore where future funding will be targeted.

- more at link: short article -

Thank you Gov. Tom Wolf!

[Effete Snob]

1. It's unfortunate that we don't have public internet infrastructure

What Verizon and Xfinity have done is to viciously fight any municipal or public internet infrastructure to the extent that we have silly programs like this one.

What this program does is shovel money to Verizon and Xfinity for building out their own networks in rural areas, and then charging those customers out the wazoo to use the internet infrastructure the public paid for.

When we wanted universal telephone service, we made it a requirement for the regional Bell telcos to provide it, in exchange for the monopolies they were given.

Now, we actually give these crooks public money to build stuff and then pay those crooks to let us use the network we paid them to build.

It's very sad.

This is a happy face painted over corporate welfare which simply enriches those who need it the least.