Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Ms Gets $495 Million Grant for Rural High-Speed Internet

 Senator Roger Wicker issued the following statement. 

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today celebrated the award of $495,725,799.60 from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expand high-speed broadband internet access in Mississippi. The funding, which is being made available to Internet Service Providers in Mississippi through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction, is the highest amount awarded to any state except California.

“This first round of funds from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will make an incredible difference in the state of Mississippi as we work toward connecting every person to reliable high-speed internet,” Wicker said. “There is much more work left to do, but this strong showing for our state’s internet providers is good news. I will continue working to improve internet access for all Mississippians and ensure the next phases of aid are awarded where they are most needed.”

The funding will support broadband infrastructure construction over a 10-year period. Providers have to meet periodic buildout requirements that will require them to reach all assigned locations by the end of the sixth year. They are incentivized to build out to all locations as quickly as possible.

Wicker introduced legislation earlier this year to provide additional incentives for providers to complete their RDOF buildouts earlier. This followed public and private efforts by Wicker to urge the FCC to expedite their award of broadband support to help Americans get online during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction is part of a broader effort by the FCC to close the digital divide in rural America and focus limited universal service funds on unserved areas that most need support.  In October 2020, the Commission adopted rules creating the 5G Fund for Rural America, which will distribute up to $9 billion over the next decade to bring 5G wireless broadband connectivity to unserved areas in rural America.

More information on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction is available at https://www.fcc.gov/auction/904, including complete auction results and a map of winning bids.

 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

This ought to work out well for a few folks....

Anonymous said...

Elon Musk is well over half way finished in his endeavor to put almost 1,000 satellites in orbit that will deliver high speed internet all over the world. Now we have government subsidizing his competition. Nothing like the good ol federal government take money from taxpayers to subsidize some internet providers, when a private company has spent probably hundreds of millions to provide the service.

Anonymous said...

First, Elon Musk is receiving over $800M from the same fund.

Second, Starlink can't even provide 100mb and will still have latency issues. Starlink will be great out west, in the mtns and in 3rd world countries.

Third, rural high speed internet has been promised for 15 years and subsidized for 10 and we still don't have a good system of service.

Fourth, try again

Anonymous said...

C-an you believe this?
S-urely this is good news.
P-ure love from the federal govmint.
I-ndicative of progress here in 'sip.
R-arely is money better spent.
E-xactly what the local business need.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like corporate socialism. I bet not a single tax payer benefits from this half billion dollar giveaway.

Anonymous said...

12:456, that's idiotic. You're either ignorant or a liar. Elon MUSK is "getting subsidized." Damn, son.

I know you hate "the GubMint," but good ole Elon is just like the rest of them "self made" men: he takes GubMint Money to make himself more money.

"SpaceX has just won a key grant worth nearly $1bn from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring its low-Earth orbit Starlink satellite broadband service to people in 35 US states.

Elon Musk's space transportation services company has scooped a sizable chunk of the FCC's first round of support under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The first phase is worth $9bn, but the total amount allocated to the fund to patch up rural America's patchy internet is funded to the tune of $16bn over 10 years."

Who's getting subsidized by the GubMint??? The same ole Rich Guys, and Elon was first in line with his hand out. Just like the tax breaks in California. Cry me a river.

Anonymous said...

Good. Now maybe my local telco will do something about the lack of service. I live 2.5 miles from the office and the best I can get is 10Mbps DSL that slows to under 1Mbps most nights as people suck up the bandwidth with streaming video and randomly disconnects every 15 minutes or so.

To add insult to injury, my local electric co-op refused to participate in the program every other one around me did where they could install internet infrastructure to rural households. FU Southern Pine, thanks for nothing.

Anonymous said...

And finally, 12:46, those satellites cover NORTHERN states and Canada. They aren't in the right orbit for us, so spare us the conspiracy theories about how someone else is "getting subsidized" for "his competition."

Anonymous said...

This is what Republicans refer to as trickle down socialism. They give all the tax money to corporations and some of it will trickle down to the masses and then they will call the democrats socialists. It’s pretty genius when you don’t think about it.

Anonymous said...

Too bad there isn't an option for the people that are stuck living in a food, healthcare, education, transportation, job, etc. wasteland to get a grant to move to a sustainable community instead of broadband service they may cannot afford.

Anonymous said...

follow the $. it'll make you upchuck

Anonymous said...

Call me what you will, but aren't there more pressing matters in this shithole of a state that half a billion dollars could be spent on? Is the lack of rural broadband internet really that big of a problem? I mean we have basic infrastructure needs that desperately need to be addressed. Yeah, it would be a bit of an inconvenience to not have high speed internet service at home, but we all survived with out it for thousands of years. Maybe I'm just thinking too logically.

Picking Winners and Losers said...

Right now there are lots of friends of politicians racing to their BMW/Mercedes/Bentley dealer and looking at water front property along the redneck riviera.

Cha ching. Corporate welfare, all funded by that free "federal grant" money, also known as TAXPAYER'S MONEY and money borrowed from China.

Can you say national debt, soon to be increased by $1 trillion due to more Covid free money.

Pretty soon the Fed's printing presses are going to wear out.

Anonymous said...

The ultimate winners are the private central bankers that loan the government our own money and bribe our politicians with it too. Meanwhile you plebs argue over your quaint little differences in political ideology like good little sheeple. And you wonder why the nation is lost.


Anonymous said...

Sen. Wicker's job is to bring the bacon to MS that would otherwise go somewhere else. And while some large corporations/developers do benefit, there are lots of buildings and highways named after senators and congressmen that would not be here otherwise. And speaking from personal experience, 1Gbt Fiber internet is pretty nice (and relatively cheap compared to cable/dsl connections).

Anonymous said...

C Spire not a recipient...interesting

Sol Juette said...

Which is worse, a food desert or an internet desert?

Anonymous said...

2:01 Last I checked moving to take a better job doesn't have a lot of barriers outside of those that are self-imposed. Most of the time it is family that ties you to a particular area. If you get offered a good job then you can make it work even if you have to live in one of those long-term suites for a bit until your first paychecks can clear and you can put a deposit down on a place to rent.

On the other hand, if you are uneducated and unskilled then moving from one minimum wage job to another isn't going to do you much good.

Anonymous said...

December 8, 2020 at 1:28 PM

High Speed fiber is part of this grant and Southern Pine is participating. They partnered with TEC and you will likely have fiber available in the coming years.

https://www.tec.com/promotions/attention-southern-pine-electric-members

Anonymous said...

there are some truly, astoundingly stupid comments on this.

Anonymous said...

How did I survive so long with my AOL dial-up connection back in the day? I don't think requiring high speed internet so gamers can play games is in the Bill of Rights.

Anonymous said...

A $495 million grant will make a few people feel very "warm and fuzzy" at holiday cocktail parties this year.

Why ? . . . "because they care".

The $495 million is only a grant.

Yeah it might help some rural kids for a couple of years ( and I'm all for that ),
but the fact remains technology changes rapidly. What the state bought this year will be obsolete within three or four years.

What then ? Another 500 million for upgrades ?

Hell, it took an AT&T technician an extra hour to upgrade by basic DirectTV service . . . only because I didn't have the latest gen-7, 4k, "Starship Enterprise" TV.

Anonymous said...

Will this become another fiasco like the Kemper Power Plant? Someone always has to come up with new scheme to get taxpayer dollars for personal gain while making it look like progress for Mississippi. Just remembering the old saying, "When it's everyone's money, it's no one's money."

Anonymous said...

3:26 It is TEC, not Southern Pine, that is the provider and it is limited to Bay Springs anywhere near my area. That is not part of the Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act and they did not get any of the . They specifically said "After much study and analysis, Southern Pine’s board of directors made the difficult decision to not become a service provider of high-speed internet" See the full press release here:

https://www.southernpine.coop/press-releases/view/southern-pine-electric-and-tec-collaborate-bring-fiber-internet-members#:~:text=Southern%20Pine%20Electric%20is%20excited%20to%20announce%20a,Southern%20Pine%E2%80%99s%20members%20that%20are%20unserved%20or%20underserved.

They are also not on the list of winning bidders in the award notice.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-20-1422A2.pdf

Maybe they will eventually partner with my local telco, but as of now there is nothing but crickets.

Anonymous said...

Look up your local “r u r a l” electric cooperatives “990 form” on the Internet. You will see all the coops “m a n a g e m e n t team and board of directors salaries. A rube ass socialist experiment subsidizing one rate schedule class of customer from another.

Anonymous said...

December 8, 2020 at 5:05 PM

Again, as I said, Southern Pine partnered with TEC and is part of this grant. I provided you a link to go sign up for updates. The money to TEC/Southern Pine is part of the Mississippi Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium, which totals over $200M

If you go and look at the kmz overlay file for google earth, you can see the areas that this grant covers. Some of the areas the grant covers is serviced by Southern Pine and TEC will be providing it through Southern Pine.

While TEC is based out of Bay springs, the link I provided you, will show you that you, as a Southern Pine customer, are likely to be covered under this grant and will have access to fiber internet within 10 years, at the most.

Attention, Southern Pine Electric Members!

TEC, in collaboration with Southern Pine Electric, is bringing Fast Fiber Internet to your area.

When will service be available?
We plan to start construction in 2021 and to build out our network following an aggressive 10 year schedule.

How can I find out when service is available in my area?
You can submit your information on our sign-up page. We will contact you when service becomes available in your area.
You can follow us on social media @TECconnects for regular updates.


and since you love your Southern Pine press releases:
https://www.southernpine.coop/press-releases/view/southern-pine-electric-and-tec-collaborate-bring-fiber-internet-members

Care to be wrong some more?

Anonymous said...

so we will pay half a billion to lay and out a new network for the companies then only to have then charge us to use the service we paid for already....damn

Anonymous said...

".....there are lots of buildings and highways named after senators and congressmen that would not be here otherwise." Um, Of WHAT importance is that supposed to be? Mississippi rubes.

Anonymous said...

I use "The Today in Mississippi" magazine to line my birdcage.

Anonymous said...

You think Covid was the mankind killer, wait for all that shit we keep putting up there begins coming down. Kinetic energy is a bitch.

Anonymous said...

ur ruh "Will LIHEAP"cover delinquent broadband bills?....??

Anonymous said...

If you are too dumb to move out of a dying town in the delta, having internet is not going to help anything. You still gotta come up with $25 for Sling or Netflix.


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