Thanks to COVID-19 cash, faster internet is coming for parts of rural Mississippi

Fast internet is finally set to arrive in several of the most rural parts of Mississippi. The Mississippi Public Utilities Staff awarded $66 million in grants for areas that have few or no high-speed internet options. The bulk of the federal grant money went to rural electric cooperatives, which now will also serve as the primary internet providers in their regions. Rural Mississippians can thank the coronavirus pandemic for the sudden infusion of federal CARES Act funds that should — by the end of this year — create thousands more high-speed internet connections. Mississippi has long suffered from among the most limited coverage and slowest internet speeds of any state in the country. In 2021 — using matching funds they were required to commit in order to obtain the federal cash — the cooperatives and several other groups plan to lay another 1,980 miles of fiber. The fiber lines will be hung on poles, and recipients of the grants expect they can lay about 20 miles a week through the end of the year. Those new fiber lines will go past more than 40,000 homes and businesses, many of which will potentially be able to tap into high-speed internet for the first time.