WA State Gets $736M for Broadband Expansion, Including SE WA Counties

A large Federally-funded broadband (internet) expansion program has been approved for numerous projects in WA State.

  238 Projects Will Receive Funding for Broadband Expansion

The Federal National Telecommunciations and Information Administration, or NITA, has approved a WA State Dept. of Commerce Application for $736 million to expand broadband (internet access) across the state, including numerous E WA Counties.

The NITA program is designed to provide "reliable and high-speed" internet access to a total of 166,500 homes and businesses over the next four years.

 The Dept. of Commerce Will Oversee the Program

Numerous projects in Benton, Franklin, Adams, Yakima and Grant Counties will receive over $32 million of those funds, 3 Walla Walla County projects will receive over $11 Million.

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According to the Department of Commerce, these are the types of broadband that will be installed depending on what kinds best fit each project:

• "Fiber: 58,530 Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) – 35%
• Fixed Wireless: 63,641 BSLs – 38%
• Low-Earth Orbit Satellite: 44,332 BSLs – 27%"

The Department of Commerce calls the program BEAD, or Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment. The next steps will be permitting and bid processes to determine who will do the installlation and infrasctructure.  The plan is to have them completed by 2030.

Observers say they will be watching closely to determine how well the state stays on track with the projects, as it is Federal money, but the Dept. of Commerce will be running the program.

In all, the total Federal allotment toward this broadband expansion is said to be $42 billion nationwide. Whitman, Lincoln, Kittitas and Garfied counties also received program funding from the project.