Five remote areas of Wyoming will be connected to affordable, high-speed internet thanks to $9.59 million from the US Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect program which was able to relaunch thanks to an infusion of funding from the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act (IIJA).
Funding from the IIJA, passed in the fall of 2021, has provided critical boosts of funding to this program which has been equated in scale and importance to the Rural Electrification Act of 1935 which overcame the hurdles of bringing electricity to remotely located homes and communities, cutting the cost in half, including overhead costs, of what private power companies had quoted.
ReConnect provides funding at 100% grant for communities where 90% or more of households lack sufficient access to broadband, as well as for Alaska Native Corporations, Tribal Governments, Colonias, Persistent Poverty Areas and Socially Vulnerable Communities.
All the project areas have less than six people per square mile; 204 new households are expected to gain connectivity through this award, in addition to 15 new businesses and 19 agriculture operations.
