Dallas City Wire

FORT WORTH  – On June 29, Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33), member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, announced that Texas would receive over $3.3 billion through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. This funding will help to deploy affordable, reliable high-speed Internet infrastructure to everyone in America through President Biden’s “Internet for All” initiative.

“During the pandemic, I helped create the Emergency Broadband Benefit that provided struggling families a discount on their monthly internet bills during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Emergency Broadband Benefit became a permanent program that has helped close the digital divide for millions of Americans,” said Rep. Veasey. “The recently announced BEAD funding will help bolster these programs to ensure every community – rural, urban, Black, Hispanic – have access to quality, affordable high-speed Internet service because it is a necessity in today’s society. These investments will also help create good paying jobs in the process of building out the Internet infrastructure while increasing our competitiveness and spurring economic growth for many years to come.”

The BEAD funding will be used to deploy or upgrade broadband networks to ensure that everyone in Texas has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service. Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funding can be used to pursue eligible access-, adoption-, and equity-related uses. 

Original source can be found here.