Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is visiting with Oklahoma State University’s Brian Whitacre, about an update on broadband in Oklahoma. Whitacre is on the state’s Broadband Expansion Council, which provides recommendations to the newly formed Oklahoma Broadband Office.
“We have held a series of events where we try to listen to people that are struggling with on-the-ground broadband issues,” Whitacre said. “Director Sanders with the Oklahoma Broadband Office has kind of headed those up, and we have heard that the people who tend to show up to those meetings are the ones that don’t have good broadband.”
Whitacre said the broadband team knows the approximate number of households around the state that need better broadband service. The number, he added, is close to 300,000.
“We finally have some money to help those specific households,” Whitacre said. “Just a couple of days ago, the portal for that first chunk of money closed, so we had providers submit their documents about how many homes they were going to serve, how much money they thought it would take to get there.”
With about 400 million dollars available through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, in the coming weeks, Whitacre said the broadband office will evaluate those proposals and decide who will be funded.
“There are about 150,000 (households) that don’t have any broadband at all,” Whitacre said.
This is only the first round of funding, Whitacre said, so the decision about the first 400 million dollars will be made in the coming weeks, and then that money will start to be expended in early 2024.
The portal for the next round of funds will open in 2024, Whitacre said, for those who were not included in the first round.
“There is about 800 million dollars that is coming,” Whitacre said.
Oklahomans can still check out the interactive broadband map at https://map.broadband.ok.gov/map?zoom=7¢er=-10996721%2C4195001 and see what service looks like in their area.
Whitacre urges individuals who see unserved or underserved locations in their county on the broadband map to reach out to their local provider or local electric cooperative to inform them.
