As Pennsylvania prepares for an anticipated flood of federal funding to improve broadband access, the state must first resolve a basic and yet surprisingly thorny challenge: pinpointing where high-speed internet is still unavailable.
Officials in the Southern Alleghenies region created the organization in part to sidestep an obscure provision in state law that puts roadblocks in the way of local governments trying to build their own broadband networks.
Everyone in Pennsylvania has access to broadband according to the definition set by state lawmakers in the early 2000s.
local communities that wanted to build their own broadband networks are facing another challenge – an obscure 2004 state law intended to keep publicly-owned telephone companies from competing with utilities.
An obscure state law could blunt the impact of up to $1 billion in federal funding for Pennsylvania’s broadband expansion.
Under the initiative, three programs will spend $45 billion on building broadband infrastructure, reducing connection costs and promoting equitable access.
