Federal broadband funds were awarded to three states this week with Arizona claiming the lion’s share of $99.4 million. Tennessee and Wyoming were also beneficiaries of the ongoing pandemic response funding. As Cronkite News reports, Arizona intends to use the additional resources to extend broadband access to 127,000 underserved households and businesses. Rural and indigenous populations are expected to be the primary recipients.
The available monies in Arizona will be split between the Arizona Broadband Development Rural Infrastructure Grant program and the Arizona Broadband Development Urban Infrastructure Grant. The former will direct projects in the state’s 13 rural counties; the latter will focus on programs in Maricopa and Pima counties.
“It helps ensure that communities that have long been overlooked and underserved by the federal government, including tribal communities throughout Arizona, have the opportunity to apply for and receive their fair share,” stated AZ Senator Kyrsten Sinema. “Without solid and strong connectivity, we saw that Arizona kids couldn’t have access to the education they needed,” she continued. “There were hardworking Arizonans who weren’t able to work, there were employers who struggled to maintain their businesses and, importantly, seniors in Arizona couldn’t access telehealth services.”
“So much of our lives are tied to the internet now,” agreed David Lujan, President of the Childrens Action Alliance in AZ. “We’ve seen that even heightened during the pandemic and then continuing on beyond the pandemic. So when families or communities do not have that same level of access, then they’re often shut out of many opportunities.”
Lujan celebrated the opportunities created by the extra funding, noting that “any resources are good resources” if they help people in rural and low-income communities. He added that a good digital connection means that a population in need will not find itself stranded at a time when “government services these days, and even private services, are focusing primarily on serving people through the internet.”
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