Federal money is coming to build out more internet infrastructure, but how much will depend on how accurate Alaskans are in assessing their need.
The federal money stems from the year-old Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which contains a $42 billion appropriation for expanding broadband capacity. Each state will automatically get $100 million in the next six months, but the rest of the money will be divided up by where the most unserved and underserved populations are.It considers an area “unserved” if there’s no broadband with speeds of at least 25 megabits per second downstream and 20 megabits per second upstream.
Brittany Woods-Orrison is a broadband specialist in a joint position held between Native Movement and Alaska Public Interest Research Group. In a presentation last year, she explained why it matters.The FCC considers an area “underserved” if it does not have access to broadband of at least 100 megabits per second downstream and 20 megabits per second upstream. That designation covers many neighborhoods in Fairbanks, as well as Interior towns like Healy, Nenana, Delta and Tok.
“The digital divide is the gap between people who do and do not have access to broadband, which is pretty severe, especially in Alaska,” Woods-Orrison said. Rural Alaska is particularly in need, especially where there’s no access to wired low-price plans costing less than $60 a month. No rural Alaska school meets the FCC educational goals of 1 megabit per second per student.
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