Rural broadband grant bill passes House

By
Suzanne Downing
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12
947

It was back to the beginning for rural internet broadband funding in the Legislature this week.

After a drama-filled Monday that was tempest-in-a-teapot over a funding dispute, the Alaska House rushed to pass HB 193 this week, which is essentially the original version of Senate Bill 140, authorization and funds for rural internet broadband grants.

SB 140 had been loaded up like a plate of nachos with other education items demanded by the education unions and public school administrators, and was ultimately vetoed by the governor last week, a veto that was upheld by the joint House and Senate on Monday.

Legislature fails to override governor on education mega-bill

But that veto left time running out for rural communities to apply for federal grants to build out broadband fiber optic to their communities. The original purpose of SB 140 was the rural internet portion, worth millions to Bethel Native Corporation and others that would get the state and federal funds to lay fiber optic cable across the tundra.

The original broadband program aimed at getting rural areas up to 25 megabits per second. SB 140 set the threshold for speeds to 100 mbps.

HB 193, whose lead sponsor is Rep. Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, does that: It increases broadband share for eligible schools from 25 megabits per second to 100 Mbps of download speed and provides funding to help those schools reach 100 Mbps through the School Broadband Assistance Grant. The grant leverages federal funds in a 8:1 match.

Some have posited that this will help rural villages with economic development, although the idea is mostly fantasy. It may help with education accessibility, but that is balanced out by the fact that 20% of internet searches are for porn and the share of internet users who play video games exceeds 83%. These are functions of the internet that need more broadband bandwidth than simply taking a math lesson online.

Four House members voted against the bill: Reps. Julie Coulombe of Anchorage, David Eastman of Wasilla, Will Stapp of Fairbanks, and Sarah Vance of Homer, all Republicans. The bill is likely to race through the Senate on Friday in order to get the governor’s signature before the grant application deadline passes.

Dunleavy vetoes mega-spending on education, but will Legislature override?
What was the basis for Senate Bill 140? Follow the money to higher speed internet in rural Alaska favoring cable fiber, not satellite speeds
Democrats attempt to take veto power away from executive branch; Bjorkman and Merrick fall in line to expand Legislature’s power

12 COMMENTS

    • That answer is simple.
      The lefties will never give Musk anything after He exposed all the ex twitter head honchos for exposing the FBI collusion with the Biden campaign team to keep sonnyboy Hunters laptop from becoming public until after Joe’s selection process was complete.
      Musk simply isnt a team player and must be cancelled even if he could provide the whole world with FREE internet….But No we have to lay cable across the forbidden tundra to the promised land so everyone can stream free porn from Hunters laptop featuring his star studded “The Lonely Widow” with his sister in law.

  2. Gosh, we do all these functions (and can stream movies to 2 devices simultaneously) with Starlink at $90 per month.

  3. Typical example of political payback to party donors.
    Cost? Incredible!
    When it will be completed? How many years?

    The problem could be fixed within weeks and less cost.
    Starlink is up and operational across Alaska.
    Any and all villages that are not on this favored fiber list could have broadband almost immediately and have better performance than what this boondoggle is projecting.
    This is nuts!

  4. Eastman again. Preening for the cameras. He knew this was gonna pass and if his track record is an indicator, he voted no just to get press and clicks.

  5. Ya, Why choose Starlink with a much lower cost and portability, when you can oil the CORRUPTION MACHINE IN JUNEAU! NO DOUBT “THE UNICOCK’S” IN THE SENATE WILL PASS THIS AS WELL TO REPAY FAVORS!

  6. Get a bunch of musically gifted rural ladies together to play us some music and sing us some songs and we’d have something…

  7. Just more dope from the drug pusher government, pushing the drug called “free money”. Why can no one see this?

  9. Nice work MRA!

    Rep from Dillingham Bryce Edgmon stands to profit with this. Federal Money being used and provided to his Native Corp, Choggiung LTD, $27 million and he is a the former President. He is wanting this done fast so questions aren’t asked.

    Senator Lyman Hoffman does the similar in Bethel.

    ‘https://nbam.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/8285506482b941ae8f9de43f8acf3746

    ‘https://www.elections.alaska.gov/election/2020/General/Edgmon,Bryce_HD37_WEB.pdf

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