MetroNet continues to prove that collaboration is the key to successful fiber optic deployment in over 100 communities across 9 states. Most recently, the cities of Fayetteville and Greenville (NC) announced MetroNet’s intention to construct a fiber optic network providing high-speed internet, television, and phone in their cities with a combined investment by the company of $110 million. How does that happen?
Despite years of effort and tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, the United States still faces a stubborn rural-urban broadband gap. A large, one-time injection of federal capital can succeed in bridging the rural broadband divide if it is reasonably targeted and allocated through a reverse-auction program that serves as a transition away from the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund. The current FCC program is funded through regressive fees levied on a shrinking base of telecommunications services.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr.
Ten years ago, Comcast created Internet Essentials to help address the digital divide and the homework gap and give low-income families the opportunity to experience the transformative power of the Internet in their own homes. Over the last decade, we’ve worked with thousands of partners across the country and have collectively made tremendous progress. In our service area, 40% of the growth in broadband adoption among low-income households with school-age children can be attributed to the Internet Essentials program.
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