By BRENT MARTIN
Missouri will receive $1.7 billion from the federal government to expand broadband in the state, an incredible step toward covering the entire state, according to Broadband Development Office Director B. J. Tanksley.
“It’s huge. It’s an historic opportunity for us in the state of Missouri,” Tanksley tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We’ve been talking about broadband for a long time and never thought we would have funding like this to truly be able to address access, the infrastructure access, across the state.”
Tanksley says the money will go a long way to providing high-speed internet to all Missourians, no matter where they live.
“Our true goal with this is to connect all Missourians and that’s what we’re going to try to do and with this amount of funding, we’ll go a long was towards that,” according to Tanksley.
Pockets of Missouri do not have access to high-speed internet or have only limited access.
“Especially when you look across the Iowa border, there’s some significant pockets. Western Missouri does and then also across southern Missouri,” Tanksley says. “There’s some tough to reach areas, because of geography and otherwise.”
Tanksley says those parts of the state still without broadband service have similar characteristics.
“It’s largely two things,” Tanksley says. “It’s either population density or the difficulty of the terrain or the combination of the two.”
Tanksley says the state will work with internet providers to expand broadband. He expects it to take about six months to form a plan with expansion starting in earnest early next year.
Tanksley calls this allocation of federal funds historic.
“Unbelievable opportunity in front of us to really close the gap and make sure people in Missouri can live where they want to and not have to wonder if they’ll have that the services that they expect to have available to them.”
The money comes from the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration and is based on the number of unserved or under-served residents in the state.