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Federal government grants California $1.8 billion for internet infrastructure

Tom Magliery
/
Flickr / Creative Commons

California senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla announced Monday that California will receive $1.8 billion to expand internet access. The money comes from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program, which aims to provide all Americans with internet access.

Sen. Feinstein said about 20 percent of Californians lack reliable internet access. In fact, according to USA Today, the rural unincorporated community of Newcastle in Northern California had the slowest internet in the country as recently as 2019.

This latest award brings the total amount California has received through the BEAD program to almost $7 billion, out of a total $43 billion the Biden administration is dedicating to internet infrastructure nationwide.

This money will go to internet service providers, who will build new infrastructure, like fiber optic cables, to improve broadband access.

In a press release, Sen. Padilla said, “Access to high-speed Internet is essential infrastructure, but for too long, low-income and underserved communities have been shut out of educational and economic opportunities due to a lack of affordable and reliable access to Internet.”

President Joe Biden said the federal government will connect every person in the U.S. to reliable internet by 2030.

Max Harrison-Caldwell is a summer intern at KALW and a student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where he is studying audio reporting and photojournalism. Before going back to school, he covered streets and public space for The Frisc. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Thrasher Magazine.