Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on delivering internet service yet large gaps remain

Since 2019, Wisconsin has allocated more than $345 million in state and federal funds to expand high-speed internet in the state, yet there are still more than 181,000 locations without service, according to a 2024 Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access report released Thursday.

The funding will support new and improved service for more than 410,000 homes and businesses, but more work remains to close access gaps, the report noted .

For decades, the state and federal government have poured money into getting broadband, another name for high-speed internet, to largely rural areas.  In 2023, Wisconsin was allocated more than $1 billion in grants under the $42 billion federal Broadband Equity Access Deployment Act.

Yet gaps remain in many rural areas, and some previously funded service is now obsolete and will have to be updated with more spending. One $20 billion federal program, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, was dogged by allegations of grant recipients unable to fulfill their obligations.

Still, there was evidence of the program working in Wisconsin as large spools of fiber cable were rolled out along rural roads and work crews connected homes.

Proponents for the taxpayer-funded spending say that without it, there would be little or no incentive for internet service providers to reach sparsely populated rural areas. The service, they say, is needed by rural businesses, homes, health centers and schools.

“Having access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet is a necessity, not a luxury, for how Wisconsinites learn, work, get connected to services, and stay in touch with loved ones,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a news release announcing the 2024 report.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on delivering internet service yet large gaps remain