November 30, 2009
Awarding of competitive grant is positive indicator as state competes aggressively for funding to expand broadband coverage, Gov. Nixon says
Effort to expand broadband across Missouri takes big step forward with $1.9 million Recovery Act grant for mapping broadband availability, other planning measures
Jefferson City, Mo. - Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that the state of Missouri will receive more than $1.9 million in a competitive federal Recovery Act grant as the first step to expanding broadband Internet service across the state. The money will enable the Missouri Office of Administration to map current broadband service in Missouri, identify where there are gaps in service, and work with local officials on planning service expansion.
Missouri was one of six states to receive the grants announced today by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). NTIA received grant applications representing all 50 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia; NTIA previously announced 15 grants under the program.
"Our preparations to present the best possible application have paid off in this competitive grant process," Gov. Nixon said. "We will continue to aggressively pursue these federal funds for infrastructure development, even as we now use this $1.9 million for mapping and planning. There are a multitude of benefits to education, healthcare, commerce and consumers from having broadband reach into every corner of Missouri, and we will continue our work to make this a reality."
This summer, the Governor announced a private-public partnership, the MoBroadbandNow Project, to aggressively compete for federal recovery funds to expand broadband accessibility to 91.5 percent of the total population of Missouri, a significant increase from current projected accessibility of 79.7 percent. The state and Sho-Me Technologies are working together to apply for federal funding to help lay 2,500 miles of fiber-optic cable and construct 200 new broadband towers across the state.
In the grant announced today, the state is receiving $1.5 million for mapping and data collecting efforts. The Office of Administration has partnered with the University of Missouri to collect information and provide an independent source of evaluation for the data collection and mapping efforts. The state also will work with broadband providers across Missouri in collecting data.
The state of Missouri also is receiving $470,000 in federal recovery funds for its broadband planning. This money will help create regional technology planning teams within each of the state's 19 regional planning council regions to develop a regional broadband adoption plan. In addition, this funding will help the state develop and host information technology summits to provide academia, business, industry, government and local citizens with important information about how broadband infrastructure can be used to their benefit, now and in the future.