‘Cautiously optimistic’: Federal funding to expand rural broadband in Ohio

December 14, 2020

By Céilí Doyle, The Columbus Dispatch

A glimmer of hope lies beyond Appalachia’s mountainous horizon for over 400,000 people living without steady, or really any, reliable access to high-speed internet in rural Ohio.

On Monday, the Federal Communication Commission announced that the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), a $20.4 billion investment from the federal agency to expand broadband across the country, allocated over $170 million to service 191,000 homes and businesses in Ohio over the next 10 years.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Tom Reid said, a broadband consultant with Buckeye Hills Regional Council, a coalition of local governments that serves eight Ohio Appalachian counties.

Read the complete article at the Columbus Dispatch: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2020/12/14/federal-funding-expand-rural-broadband-ohio-appalachia-internet/6495361002/