New funding for high-speed internet access across the country

On June 26, President Biden announced how $42.5 billion will be distributed across the country to expand access to broadband internet. Each state will receive at least $107 million in funding, with the goal to provide high-speed internet access to all by 2030.

Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Associate Professor Christopher Terry can speak to the potential impact of this new funding.

Christopher Terry

“This process, which began with the release of the FCC's National Broadband Plan on March 16, 2010 has been a lesson in the role the state can play in the deployment of communication systems.”

“Beginning with the post office, then with radio and later television, the Federal Government took a results-forward approach to ensuring the technology for communication was available and accessible to as many people as fast as possible. Yet, because of changes to our value system in the mid-1990s, we took a fundamentally different, hands-off approach to deployment under competition era regulation. The result has been a patchy deployment with large numbers of under and unserved citizens in a mess that is now going to cost us far more than it should have, and even with this massive funding subsidy, it will still require a decade longer than originally planned to achieve.”

“Minnesota’s share is $651 million to resolve our under and unserved areas in our state. It is significantly less than Minnesota estimated it would take to finish the build out. And if you've been in any of our less urban areas than the Twin Cities this summer, you know what shortcomings I am talking about.”

Christopher Terry is an associate professor of journalism and media law in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and has researched broadband policy as a Thrust Four Fellow with the Center for Quantum Networks. His research and expertise covers a wide range of media regulation and policy topics including media and minority ownership, political advertising, online content regulation, free expression and digital media law.

Contact
Christopher Terry, [email protected]