Nearly $190 million awarded for Indiana broadband projects

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana leaders say $189 million in grant funding goes out to communities throughout the state to enhance broadband entry.

Based on the governor’s workplace, this spherical of grants underneath the Subsequent Degree Broadband Grant Program will join practically 53,000 houses and companies to broadband.

Nonetheless, some Hoosiers aren’t hooked as much as high-speed web.

“It’s 2022, proper? You simply kind of suppose all people has entry to good high-speed web,” mentioned Michael Nance, a Boone County resident, throughout a Zoom interview Thursday.

For Nance, Zoom calls are simpler at his workplace in Lebanon in comparison with his dwelling lower than three miles north of city.

For web entry, his household depends on smartphones and satellite tv for pc web, which Nance mentioned doesn’t present a high-speed connection.

“It received’t help streaming,” Nance mentioned. “My son tries to play some video video games on-line – it received’t help that.”

As a part of this newest spherical of grants, Boone County obtained practically $2 million from the state, which can join about 1,000 extra houses and companies to web entry in some rural areas, in keeping with Commissioner Tom Santelli.

However that solely accounts for about 20% of Boone County’s present want, Santelli mentioned.

“As a county, we’ve grown from 32,000 in 1992 now to over 70,000,” he mentioned.

To cowl the price of this most up-to-date spherical of grants, the state allotted federal funding it obtained from the American Rescue Plan. Extra federal funding is on the way in which to assist with these efforts as a result of federal infrastructure legislation.

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch mentioned she believes it’s additionally going to require Indiana lawmakers to allocate further state {dollars} to get all Hoosiers linked.

“Within the final finances session in ’21, there have been 18 payments coping with broadband growth that had been launched,” Crouch mentioned. “And I believe that signifies how supportive and what a precedence broadband is to the Common Meeting.”

State officers will get a greater sense of which areas are missing web entry when the federal authorities releases new information later this yr, Crouch mentioned.

Any Hoosier who doesn’t have high-speed web at their dwelling or enterprise is urged to report that to the state. You may name the Indiana Broadband Join Middle at 833-639-8522 or fill out a kind on-line.