Tennessee Offering Grant Funds to Expand Broadband Internet Access Across the State

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced the availability of $185 million in grant funds to expand broadband internet access in the state on Monday.

Broadband is high-speed internet access that is always operating and available for connection, according to TNECD.

The grant funding, according to TNECD, comes from the state’s Financial Stimulus Accountability Group, which was created by Governor Bill Lee to “ensure proper fiscal management of stimulus funds received by the state, first through the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund, then through the subsequent American Rescue Plan.”

This round of grant funding is through two programs: TNECD’s Last Mile and Middle Mile Grant.

TNECD will offer up to $185M through Last Mile and Middle Mile Grants, which bring broadband access to TN's most underserved regions.

Internet service providers in areas that lack broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps will have the chance to apply for funding. https://t.co/t9gLpFOFgd pic.twitter.com/vxm7pNkdG7

— TNECD (@TNECD) July 24, 2023

TNECD’s Last Mile Grant Program will provide up to $60 million in funds to internet service providers across unserved and underserved areas in Hardin, Wayne, and Polk counties while TNECD’s Middle Mile Grant Program will offer up to $125 million to internet service providers across unserved and underserved in all other counties in Tennessee.

The grant applications will open for both programs on September 4 and close on October 16.

Citing the 2020 Broadband Deployment Report published by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), TNECD says one in six rural Tennesseans lack access to broadband.

In regards to internet availability, “unserved” and “underserved” areas are defined by TNECD as communities that lack broadband at speeds of 100/20 Megabits per second (Mbps).

In Tennessee, municipalities are legally allowed to operate their own electric utilities to provide broadband internet within their electric service areas. However, some Tennesseans have expressed great opposition to government-owned broadband networks (GONs).

One example is in Bradley County, where the City of Cleveland and its utility department, Cleveland Utilities, have proposed a $72 million GON. Activist groups in Bradley County have argued that there is “simply no need to spend millions of dollars in public funds to dramatically grow a city department to provide a service that is already provided by private industry.”

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Broadband Installation” by BT’s BDUK Partnerships Fibre Rollout Photography. CC BY 2.0.