Colorado Gets $171M To Expand Broadband Access Statewide

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

December 8, 2022

Colorado is set to receive $170.8 million in federal funding to expand broadband infrastructure, a figure that will assist in bringing reliable internet access to about 18,000 locations in the state.

The funding, which will come from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Projects Fund, will help Colorado inch closer to its ambitious goal to connect 99% of households to high-speed internet by 2027. The state estimates that the influx of money will connect about 15% of locations that are still without reliable internet access.

“The pandemic was a national teaching moment on how essential it is for there to be affordable, high-speed internet — not just in schools, not just in libraries, but in every single home and small business in the United States. If you did not have affordable and strong enough broadband, you did not have access to full educational and economic opportunity,” Gene Sperling, the American Rescue Plan coordinator and senior advisor to President Joe Biden, said during a Thursday call with reporters.

So far, 24 states have received $3.2 billion from CPF to fund affordable broadband internet. New Mexico will get $117 million; it was also announced Thursday.

The money in Colorado will fund the state’s Advance Colorado Broadband grant program, which is designed to assist households, businesses, agricultural operations and other so-called “community anchor institutions” that currently can’t meet 25 megabits per second download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed, and later bring both functions up to a speed of 100 Mbps.

The internet providers in the program will have a $30 monthly subsidy per household as part of the Federal Communication Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program.

This money “will really go a long way, and we are ready to hit the ground running,” Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday. “I want to make sure that Coloradans, no matter where they live, can launch and operate a business, can learn, can get the health care they need. Whether you’re in Pueblo, Montrose, Sterling, Denver, Walden or anywhere in our state, you should have the ability to live and work and thrive,” he said.

In Colorado, about 14% of locations are unserved and underserved and about 166,000 households don’t have access to the internet, according to an August report from the Governor’s Office of Information Technology that set the 2027 internet access goal.

The state has until 2026 to use the money.

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