Broadband Internet access is unavailable or slow in wide swaths of Colorado where the rugged topography or distance from the Front Range has made it financially unfeasible for private companies to develop the service.
That could change if Colorado is successful in pursuing several American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants, totaling nearly $130 million, that would introduce or expand high-speed Internet to under-served communities.
We hope the applicants, who are supported by the Ritter administration, are successful in seeking a slice of this federal grant money. The money is already appropriated and some state is going to get it if Colorado doesn’t.
The grants would pay for new or augmented all-fiber-optic lines to connect schools, community colleges, libraries and public safety entities. Then private interests have the opportunity to lay the so-called “final mile” to individual homes and businesses.
The grants also would bring new and faster computers and broadband service to public computer centers around the state.
The grant program is funded by $4.7 billion that was included in the Recovery Act with the goal of expanding broadband access.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke explained the value of such access in testimony he gave earlier this year before a Senate subcommittee.
“In particular, the investments we are making . . . (will) help school children get the materials they need to learn, allow rural doctors to connect to more advanced medical centers, and — importantly — allow remotely located businesses to offer their services to national and international markets,” Locke said.
The grant program has been wildly popular, with the Commerce Department receiving applications for far more money than it has to award.
In fact, the website for the grant program lists dozens of grant applications that would, at least to some degree, offer something to Colorado.
However, the governor’s office has singled out four applications to support. The largest of the four, a $100 million application from a cooperative of Colorado school districts, proposes to build out the so-called middle mile of broadband (linking the Internet backbone to the local network) to connect educational institutions and libraries.
Two other applications would improve public computer access in Pueblo as well as dozens of locations around the state. And a third would significantly improve broadband service in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata and Montezuma counties.
As our society continues to turn to a digital platform for communication, commerce and education, these proposed projects would help position Coloradans to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by quality broadband access.
