Rural communities in East Texas are a step closer to closing the digital gap under a program with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
The was one of four groups statewide selected to participate in the Broadband Buildout Initiative, a partnership with the Dallas Fed and the nonprofit Connect Humanity. The program helps groups find funding for and execute broadband projects.
The council鈥檚 special projects director David Scott said bringing broadband access is more than bringing Netflix, Prime and other streaming platforms to homes in rural areas 鈥� it鈥檚 a matter of necessity.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at areas of telemedicine and telehealth, counseling, online job training, education,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f anything, we learned from the pandemic that there鈥檚 always going to be another threat of a pandemic or something.鈥�
The East Texas Council of Governments, based in Kilgore, has been working with communities and stakeholders for years, said spokeswoman Lindsay Vanderbilt. It鈥檚 developed 65 independent broadband projects for unserved and underserved communities across its 14 member counties.
Vanderbilt said creating the infrastructure will take time.
鈥淧eople kind of equate this to when electricity came to all households,鈥� she said. 鈥淐onnecting all households to broadband will be a very long-range project.鈥�
The Fed doesn鈥檛 fund any projects, but through the program it does provide guidance on how to finance them. There is funding out there, said Marycruz De Leon, senior outreach advisor for the Dallas Fed, 鈥渂ut t it鈥檚 not enough to address the issue and there鈥檚 still a lot of technical capacity issues that communities face.鈥�
She said one of the reasons why this initiative was created to meet communities where they were in the process of bringing broadband access to underserved areas.
Brian Vo, chief investment officer for Connect Humanity, said digital equity is an essential, like having access to water and electricity 鈥� and the impact could empower economic development.
鈥淵ou have local businesses, small businesses,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have the opportunity to keep the population there because they can access new jobs.鈥�
Other organization selected for the broadband program are Panhandle Connected, Permian Connected and Borderplex Connect.
Priscilla Rice is 四虎影院鈥檚 communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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