After Idaho recently received the largest portion of “Internet for All” funding among the three states and territories awarded, Shoshone County is looking into what the award can mean for broadband internet in the area.
Some rural communities may choose to pursue setups where the internet is like a water or sewer district generating revenue through the service itself while municipally owned.
The ball is in the Silver Valley’s court to create the vision of what that future internet use will look like.
“It’s meant to do that last mile. It’s meant to get that connectivity to the Murrays and the Pritchards and the Averys of our state,” Shoshone County grant administrator Colleen Rosson said.
The initiative granted Idaho over $583 million to develop affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.
In North Idaho, grant funding and speed mapping have been pursued to make a case to connect the rural community with a reliable connection throughout the area.
Shoshone County Commissioner Tracy Casady said, “We’d be supportive of anything to support or enhance our internet, gosh knows we need it.”
Idaho received the largest in the latest round of awards through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, followed by North Dakota and American Samoa.
The BEAD program is a $42.45 billion state grant program authorized by the Biden-Harris administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ that all of our counties are trying to sift through to figure out the partnerships that are going to be the most advantageous for all of our rural communities,” Rosson said.