Two-year plan aims to bring the internet to 2,000 homes in Beaver County, Pennsylvania

Beaver County (PA) Commissioners took the wraps off a two-year plan to bring the internet to about one-third of the county where logging on is slow or impossible, giving the onetime smokestack-industrial heartland a head start in connectivity. In all, some 2,000 homes in parts of 28 of the county’s 54 municipalities will be able to get online by 2024, according to Commission Chair Daniel Camp III. The commissioners earmarked nearly $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, which will begin in Hanover Township, followed by Big Beaver Borough, South Beaver Township and Darlington Township (PA). Meetings with municipal officials begin in April 2022. Areas targeted for broadband expansion can be found here. Lance Grable, director of the Beaver County Office of Planning and Redevelopment, said the county has been ahead of other areas in getting every home connected. A number of other counties are looking for ways of lighting up dark spots to improve education and business opportunities for residents, a costly process that, until recently, has been slowed by lack of funding. But things promise to get a whole lot smoother after the enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, which allocated $65 billion for broadband expansion projects in the US. In May 2022, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will begin accepting applications from states for broadband expansion projects, with preference given to rural or poorly served areas.