Raimondo returns to RI to deliver $100 million worth of internet funding. What it means.

NEWPORT – How difficult is it to represent the Biden administration in rural, red districts of Kentucky? It’s actually not so bad, said U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, when you are there to distribute over a billion dollars in federal funding for broadband internet.

Raimondo has been on a nationwide tour touting the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which will provide over $42 billion in funding for unserved and underserved areas of the United States to revamp their broadband infrastructure.

At the Newport Housing Authority’s Donovan Manor on Friday, Raimondo said she had “saved the best for last” by finishing her national tour in her home state, surfing that wave of federal funding into a beautiful summer day in Newport to discuss how Rhode Islanders will benefit from $108.7 million in BEAD funding.

The federal funding will be distributed through RI Commerce, using a points-based application rubric with priority given to areas that are “unserved” or “underserved” as identified by FCC maps, to nonprofits, public-private partnerships, private companies, utility providers and local governments to ensure every Rhode Islander has access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet.

Sens. Reed and Whitehouse successfully lobbied for a 'small state minimum' BEAD allotment of $100 million

Raimondo noted in her remarks that Rhode Island’s $108.7 million allotment was the result of Rhode Island “punching above its weight” in Washington, D.C., as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, who were both in attendance Friday, successfully rallied other states with smaller geographical areas and populations to secure a much higher minimum funding allocation than the initially proposed funding formula would have offered Little Rhody.

The state government estimates approximately 3,000 households in Rhode Island are completely unserved by broadband internet. The $100 million allotment is more than enough funding to provide infrastructure upgrades to serve those households, so there is the possibility of using much of the funding for school districts, community centers and Boys and Girls Clubs in underprivileged neighborhoods, public libraries and local housing authorities.

Newport’s Donovan Manor an example of the transformational power of access to high-speed internet

“There are many locations in Rhode Island that are unserved and underserved, including many on Aquidneck Island, which is why we are here today,” said Raimondo. She and other speakers mentioned the “digital divide” of people who can afford to access the internet and people who cannot, and stressed that in the modern world, the internet is not a luxury but a necessity for students, members of the workforce, and seniors who rely on strong service to communicate with their doctors and their families.

Donovan Manor, a 110-unit affordable housing development off Memorial Boulevard, had its broadband internet infrastructure installed in 2021 after HiLo Neighborhood Association president Tommy Sheehan and a team of local activists successfully applied through the state for a $980,000 Community Development Block Grant.

Prior to that, said Donovan Manor resident Anne-Marie Pacheco, some residents in the low-income units coughed up $85 a month to Cox for their internet, and many simply went without it. Now, every resident in the building has free Wi-Fi.

“Now we have the free internet, and I got rid of Cox – I’m saving $85 a month. And the internet is very fast – you can do anything with it,” Pacheco said. She said the cost savings is the biggest benefit, noting many of her neighbors who could not pay for Cox now have the ability to communicate with their families more regularly.

“I have two grandkids who live in Florida, and they just lost their mother to cancer a year ago,” said one of Pacheco’s neighbors who was sitting next to her, “a 15-year old, and a 17-year old who has autism. Now I am able to Facetime them, and I get to see them more than I did before."

The grant money will provide fixed wireless broadband service to a total of about 600 residential units across the Newport Housing Authority’s properties, benefiting almost 1,200 residents, and will also add internet capacity to the Florence Gray Center, a pillar of Newport’s working-class North End community which is used by organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County.

Defining which areas are 'unserved' and who is 'underserved' is a key piece to the funding puzzle

The Newport Daily News asked Raimondo to explain in layman’s terms how the government would be determining who is unserved and underserved before RI Commerce starts accepting applications and disbursing funds, potentially as early as summer 2024.

“Unserved means no internet,” she explained. “There is no company that provides service to that region. Underserved means you can get it, but it’s low quality – it’s a bad connection. That’s our priority: unserved first – nothing –  then underserved, where you can get it but maybe you can’t do Zoom, you can’t do streaming.”

She said the next rubric category was affordability, leading the Daily News to inquire whether areas of Rhode Island which are served by one provider and thus are trapped in a non-competitive or monopolistic market could be considered underserved – on Aquidneck Island, Cox is the only broadband provider, and thus has great autonomy to set prices in the absence of a competitive market.

Getting online: Parts of Aquidneck Island are 'underserved' when it comes to broadband. How that may change

“Yes and no,” said Raimondo. “It depends on the quality they provide. If it is a monopolistic provider that is providing poor-quality service, then we can deal with that with this money. Or, a monopolistic provider providing service at an utterly unaffordable price, then that’s something we can deal with.”

“We want to encourage competition where possible,” she continued, “and we want to hold the providers accountable who are going to receive our money.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Internet access in RI gets boost with $100 million in federal funds