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Indiana gets $15 million grant to help farmers get high-speed Internet

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Indiana is getting $15 million in federal grant money so that rural areas of the state can get access to high speed Internet.
It’s all part of a nationwide program to bridge the digital divide, as described by Katrina Hall with the Indiana Farm Bureau. She tells WISH-TV that farmers are having to rely more and more on the Internet in order to get the best yield out of their crops.
“About a third or more of people in rural areas of Indiana don’t have high speed Internet,” she said. “Many people just rely on their cellphone for Internet access, and that’s not sufficient to run a business.”
She said every day new technology is being perfected to help farmers get more out of the crops they plant and the livestock they raise, with Internet access at the center of a lot of these advancements.
But, getting farmers the access to Internet they need is still a massive challenge even with this large influx of federal grant money.
“The goal is to have Internet in every household,” Hall said. “I’m not sure we’re going to make it. It’s continued investment by Internet service providers and the states so that our communities and people in rural Indiana are covered.”
She said building the infrastructure for getting Internet access to sparsely populated areas of the state is expensive. Because of that and the low number of customers in these areas, it’s hard for some Internet providers to buy in with a low chance of turning a profit.
Still, Hall said every little bit helps. This is the first round of the program. This project is part of an even larger federal grant worth $800 million dollars for various states to tap into.

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1 comment

Slacker06 November 28, 2024 at 1:44 pm

Will this money be squandered as other federal infrastructure money is? Lets see Millions for charging stations and more millions for high speed internet connections with zero connections.

IF there is a market, companies will meet the need without the feds being involved. Where is my stipend out of this fund to pay for my fiber-optic internet service?

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