Tennessee is petitioning the federal government to release funding for internet adoption, accessibility and affordability programs, the director of the state’s broadband program said. President Donald Trump’s administration paused funding for those programs in June, placing them under review.
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the broadband grants, approved the state’s $200 million infrastructure plan last month, but the remaining $600 million of the state’s $813 million award remains in limbo.
“We are petitioning NTIA to say, ‘We would like to use some of those non-deployment funds to really work on broadband adoption, accessibility, affordability statewide, because we recognize that infrastructure may be the largest piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle,'” said Taylre Beaty, the director of the broadband program at the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
(READ MORE: Feds approve internet infrastructure for almost 44K locations in Tennessee)
The telecommunications administration was expected to provide guidance about the remainder of funding for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment funds next week, but in a statement Friday, the administration said it needed more time to review the comments it had received during a comment period.