By Anthony Hennen | The Center Square
(The Center Square) — Pennsylvania will receive more than $20 million to expand broadband access in Bedford, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, and Mifflin Counties, according to a press release from Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA.
“I was a proud supporter of this project, which will help connect thousands of families in rural Pennsylvania so kids can do their homework, families can stay in touch, and businesses can expand their markets,” Sen. Casey said. “This is just the start of the hundreds of millions of dollars coming to the Commonwealth thanks to the infrastructure law to better connect Pennsylvanians to the world.”
Though the FCC’s official maps for broadband coverage show 100 percent availability of broadband in Pennsylvania, a study by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania that collected broadband speed tests found “median speeds across most areas of the state did not meet the FCC’s criteria to qualify as a broadband connection.”
On top of the $20 million, federal funding for broadband will soon grow—dramatically. Sen. Casey noted $42.5 billion for states from the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment Program, as well as $14.2 billion in subsidies for low-income households to expand access.
All that money will need robust oversight to ensure that funds actually boost broadband access where it’s needed. “My largest concern is that there’s very minimal oversight of how the funding is going to be spent,” said Deborah Collier, vice president of policy and government affairs for Citizens Against Government Waste.
“We need greater oversight when you’re spending this much money on broadband. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that it goes—first and foremost—to communities that are either unserved or historically disconnected,” Collier said.
The government isn’t the only entity growing broadband, either. “There’s a lot of activity going on in terms of constructing broadband networks that were being driven by market forces,” Blair Levin of the Brookings Institution said.
Satellite internet service, too, is expanding competition and internet coverage. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to launch two satellites by the end of 2022 to “ provide fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.” And SpaceX’s Starlink program has launched more than 1,700 satellites to do the same.
Act 96, signed into law in December by Gov. Tom Wolf, established the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority as an independent board to administer federal funds and develop broadband in the Commonwealth. Collier emphasized that the PBDA would be wise to create an oversight office to monitor how the funds get spent and their results.