Governor Brian Kemp announced $234 million in 29 grants for broadband expansion using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds; the money will go to 12 internet service providers in 28 counties and will be matched with other funds for a total $455 million to support 76,000 locations.
“Georgia is again leading the nation in identifying where the digital divide is the deepest and acting on that knowledge to improve service for hardworking people all the way from Seminole County to Gordon County and beyond,” Kemp said in a Wednesday press release.
That follows $408 million in grant funds announced in February 2022, for a total of almost $650 million that will serve about 200,000 of 455,000 unserved locations in Georgia. The latest round of grants comes from the Capital Projects Fund Grant Program, which was created with ARPA money. The Georgia Technology Authority and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget identified underserved counties for the competitive grant program.
The top recipients under the latest grant awards are Comcast Cable Communications which got a total of $66.9 million in funds for projects in eight counties, Spectrum Southeast which was awarded nearly $49.7 million for five counties, and Windstream Georgia Communications which was awarded nearly $34.9 million for projects in four counties. Mediacom got $28.3 million for three counties, and Mitchell Electric Membership Corporation got nearly $21 million for projects in Mitchell and Worth Counties.
Georgia will open a second round of funds in the spring to Calhoun, Echols, Johnson, Miller, and Webster Counties – the five eligible counties that didn’t receive funding.
“High-speed internet access is critical for both academic and economic opportunities, as well as overall quality of life. These projects announced today will go a long way to helping Georgians in some of the most unserved and underserved parts of the state become better connected,” Kemp said in the release.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brian Kemp” by Brian Kemp.
