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Expanded broadband connectivity in Iowa will get a boost from a bill awaiting Governor Kim Reynolds’ signature, but questions remain on how much funding will be made available to support the effort.
The senate this week unanimously approved House File 848 that would set up a system of grants for broadband providers in an attempt to boost internet access in rural parts of the state. The Governor has asked for $150 million for each of the next three years while House Republicans are planning for $100 million per year. District 78 State Representative Jarad Klein (R) of Keota says the final number will be determined during the budget process, “We already had a pretty good idea of where we’re targeting our dollars for those different grants. So the policy lays out three different tiers for the ability to get broadband funding with the goal to be to ‘get the last mile.’ The last mile is always the most expensive, but it’s always the rural districts like ours that need it the
Kalona Cooperative Telephone Company is getting almost $2 million dollars to expand fiber optic broadband service in Washington County.
KCTC General Manager Casey Peck says the “Empower Rural Broadband Grant” will help cover about 35% of the cost for a 5-year project to connect over 300 households to a future-proof fiber network. Peck says they were surprised to receive the full award of their grant application, “Our expectation was, alright we’ll try for it, but we may not get it all with only $4.5 million dollars throughout the whole state of Iowa, it seemed unrealistic that we get what we were asking for because that would be about 39% of the program grant dollars that were awarded and so, when we got, it was like a Christmas gift because we got word of it December 23rd so we had to be careful about saying anything about it until recently here.”