In the fourth year of its program to aid rural providers of high-speed broadband, Tennessee is awarding another $14.9 million of state grants to 13 telephone cooperatives, private cable TV companies and power coops to extend broadband service to underserved areas.
Collectively, the newest grants will expand service to support 17,800 unserved Tennesseans in 7,120 homes and businesses.
“Every Tennessean should have access to the same high-speed broadband, no matter what zip code they live in,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in an announcement of the grants on Friday. “Our continued investment in internet connectivity will help level the playing field for rural communities across our state.”
Since the Broadband Accessibility Grant program began four years ago, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has awarded nearly $60 million in grants to help extend broadband coverage to more than 33,000 homes and businesses with 83,000 residents and workers.
But even with the high-speed internet connections, the Federal Communications Commission’s 2020 Broadband Deployment Report said one in six rural Tennesseans still lack access to broadband, which the FCC defines as internet speeds of 25 megabits per second downstream and 3 megabits per second upstream. Although PC magazine recently rated Chattanooga as the best city in America for remote work because of its high-speed internet service from EPB, many rural areas of the state still lack any broadband coverage and are unable to compete for many remote or internet-dependent jobs.