Federal funds will boost rural broadband

Additional economic stimulus money invested in broadband infrastructure will help connect Rural America to reliable internet service, according to Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The Secretary accompanied Vice President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to Pennsylvania, the first stop on President Obama’s National Rural Tour.”It will obviously help a number, a significant number of communities link up to the Internet and have access to high-speed quality Internet,” said Secretary Vilsack, in an interview with Brownfield, during his visit to Pennsylvania, “but it will by no means be the end-all of this effort; it will be the beginning of it.”

AUDIO: Tom Vilsack (6 min. MP3)

The federal government is providing $7.2 billion between the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture to accelerate broadband deployment where it hasn’t been. USDA’s share will facilitate development in rural areas, says Secretary Vilsack.

“The $2.5 billion that we have that will leverage additional loan dollars will not be obviously enough to reach every community that needs this,” says Secretary Vilsack, “but it will certainly be a healthy down payment on our effort to try to expand broadband access.”

The Commerce and Agriculture Departments host workshops in July on funding processes. Applications for funding will be accepted from July 14 to August 14.