Capital Projects Fund Helps Build Nebraska's Broadband Bridge

Nebraska adopted a state broadband plan in 2014 setting goals of extending broadband service and adoption to 90 percent of Nebraska households by 2020. Still short of its connectivity goals, the state ramped up efforts toward universal broadband during the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts fueled with federal support. The US Department of Treasury approved Nebraska's latest plans to connect everyone in the state. In May 2021, the state enacted the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Act, a law aimed at bringing fast, reliable broadband connectivity to an estimated 30,000 households. The law created the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program to facilitate and fund the deployment of broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas of Nebraska. The state appropriated $20 million to this program annually beginning in fiscal year 2021-2022. The Broadband Bridge Program was designed to assist with costly deployment projects that might not otherwise occur without public assistance. The law gave the Nebraska Public Service Commission the authority to grant awards to assist applicants with eligible infrastructure installation costs for qualifying projects. Qualifying projects must provide broadband Internet service scalable to one hundred megabits per second for downloading and one hundred megabits per second for uploading, or greater (100Mbps/100Mbps).