State awards $61 million for broadband expansion in Nebraska — with more on the way

LINCOLN, Neb (KLKN) – The Public Service Commission has approved $61 million in grants for broadband in Nebraska.

Cullen Robbins, director of telecommunications with the commission, said the new funding is targeted at getting everyone connected over the next few years.

“It’s like any construction project; it definitely takes some time,” he said. “Deploying broadband is extremely expensive, and so there’s never really been enough money to really get broadband everywhere.”

And on Tuesday, Gov. Jim Pillen announced his appointment of Patrick Haggerty to lead the newly established Nebraska Broadband Office.

On top of that, the Biden administration announced on Monday that another $405 million of federal funding would go toward expanding access in the state.

That money came from programs within the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. Among the Republicans supporting it were Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

Robbins said now that more states are getting funding to grow their broadband, Nebraska could be competing with other states for resources and labor.

He said all across our society, we’ve seen the need for internet grow, whether it’s for education, work or everyday tasks.

And when it comes to more rural areas, they often don’t have the connectivity to do those things.

“Everywhere we’ve gone, which is I think almost 30 communities at this point,” Robbins said, “you hear the same thing: that availability is an issue, getting service out there is important and there’s definitely demand for it.”

Mark McHargue, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said closing the coverage gaps will help farmers upgrade their technology.

Farmers need internet access for everything from data collection on combines to drones that survey the land to cattle trackers — even for getting updates on temperature and soil moisture.

“On our tractors, if we’re not connected either via satellite or broadband, then we don’t do a lot of the farming operations on our farm,” McHargue said. “So, there’s still farmers who can’t use the latest technology because they don’t have good connectivity.”

He also said he knows several families that have told him they would be more likely to move back to a small town if there was better internet access.