UPDATE Inside Towers reported earlier this week about the administration’s release of state-by-state assessments of broadband deployment. The report card is part of President Biden’s infrastructure package that includes $100 billion for broadband subsidies.
The “fact sheets” highlight the percentage of households without affordable access to broadband. A deeper look reveals no state got a grade higher than a C+. An average of more than 14 percent of U.S. households have no affordable internet access.
The two states that received a C+ were Georgia and Utah. On broadband specifically, the fact sheet states: “10 percent of Georgians live in areas where, by one definition, there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds. And 38.8 percent of Georgians live in areas where there is only one such internet provider. Even where infrastructure is available, broadband may be too expensive to be within reach. 15 percent of Georgia households do not have an internet subscription.”
Of Utah, the Fact Sheet states: “9.25 percent of Utahns live in areas where, by one definition, there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds. And 54.35 percent of Utahns live in areas where there is only one such internet provider. Even where infrastructure is available, broadband may be too expensive to be within reach. 9.2 percent of Utah households do not have an internet subscription.”
Towards the bottom of the list were Hawaii and Mississippi, which both received a D+. In Hawaii, 44 percent of households had one only provider that offered Minimally Acceptable Broadband Speed which the FCC defines as 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up. 12 percent of households had no internet subscription.
In Mississippi, 26 percent of households had no provider that offered Minimally Acceptable Broadband Speed; just over half of households had one such provider. 23 percent had no internet subscription.
At the bottom of the list are 12 states that didn’t get a grade. Those were: Arkansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming. The White House noted these states have suffered from a lack of infrastructure investment “for decades.”
Read all the state “Fact Sheets” here.
Reader Interactions