Gov.Ron DeSantis is awarding more than $22 million to eight Florida communities to increase internet access.

Several of those communities are here in Northwest Florida.

“Investing in reliable internet infrastructure strengthens local economies and opens up new opportunities for students, businesses and families,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “I am happy to award this $22 million to support Florida’s small and rural communities and I look forward to making more awards in the future that expand internet access to all Floridians.”

The following projects will be awarded through the Broadband Opportunity Program:

• City of Live Oak ($5,000,000) – to add 821 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 21,492 unserved locations within Suwannee County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1 gigabits per second (GB).
• City of Madison and Town of Lee ($5,000,000) – to add 759 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 1,835 unserved locations within Madison County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• Cities of Monticello and Perry; Unincorporated Lamont and Wacissa ($5,000,000) – to add 946 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 2,528 unserved locations within Jefferson, Madison and Taylor counties with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• Unincorporated Allentown and Wallace; Chumukla and Pace ($3,353,384) – to add 357 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 2,355 unserved locations within Santa Rosa County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• City of Plant City; Unincorporated Balm, Keysville, Lithia and Wimauma ($906,000) – to add 122.8 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 1,792 unserved locations within Hillsborough County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• City of Laurel Hill, Unincorporated Deerland and Svea, and Unincorporated Okaloosa County ($853,000) – to add 103.5 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 831 unserved locations within Okaloosa County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• City of San Antonio, Land O Lakes and Shady Hills, and Unincorporated Pasco County ($2,003,815) – to add 171.1 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 1,545 unserved locations within Pasco County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
• City of Dade City, Crystal Springs, Dade City North, Lacoochee, Richland, Zephyrhills North, Zephyrhills South, and Unincorporated Pasco County ($578,531) – to add 171.4 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide 911 unserved locations within Pasco County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.

Kyle Holley with the Santa Rosa County Community Development Liaison provided WEAR News this statement on the award.

Following the toolkit provided by the State of Florida’s Office of Broadband, Santa Rosa County’s effort has been centered around quality outreach to our rural areas, collecting speed test data, and cultivating grant applications that improve quality of life for our seniors, students, and workforce. We are thrilled to see our efforts working to procure the necessary funds to attract high speed internet to our disconnected residents. We are expecting more good news in the coming months regarding fiber to the home projects in Santa Rosa County’s low density areas.

Meanwhile, Okaloosa County provided WEAR News this statement.

We are thrilled that the state’s Broadband Opportunity Program awarded this money to help companies bring better Internet access to the citizens of north Okaloosa County. The County supports any program that will improve broadband access to underserved areas.

Source: Wear TV