High Plains residents with scanty internet have reason to rejoice this week. The Rural Blog recently reportedon details of the Connect America Fund plan to bring high-speed Internet to more rural areas. The plan consists of $9 billion in subsidies to provide internet to 7.3 million hard-to-reach rural customers. The Daily Yonderhas created a mapof the subsidies, which can be viewed in an interactive format here. The map shows that much of the High Plains Public Radio listening area will receive funding for broadband.
However, the FCC warns that there will be some variability in the areas that receive service. Carriers must provide broadband to these rural areas at a minimum speed of 10 megabytes for downloads and 1 megabyte for uploads. The goal is to complete 40 percent of the project by 2017.