YANKTON, S.D. (WNAX) — The over one trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Senate this week has about $65 billion in it for broadband upgrades and expansion across the country.
Greg Dean with the South Dakota Telecommunications Association says that funding is another big step in filling in the internet gaps.
“I think that in not too many years there’s going to be broadband virtually from border to border in this state,” Dean said.
Dean said state and federal funding will be a good combination. Gov. Kristi Noem set aside $100 million to expand broadband access for South Dakotans at the 2021 legislative session.
Dean said the program provides for much faster speeds than the basic 25 megabits per second download and three megabits per second upload. Dean said if new broadband doesn’t provide those higher speeds, it will be outdated as soon as it is installed.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed this report.)
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