Federal funding to pay for internet service took off in the pandemic with programs that provided up to $50 a month to Americans who couldn’t otherwise afford a broadband connection. But even before COVID, many local internet providers had taken it upon themselves to lower the cost of broadband. There’s a push to address digital […]
Ciello
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Technology
A federal program gives people $30 a month for internet. Less than a third of eligible Coloradans participate.
A federal program offering $30 to $75 each month to offset the cost of broadband internet service has attracted less than 30% of eligible users in Colorado since it launched in January. But that fraction includes 132,060 Colorado households who have enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program, as of May 9. The program, which started […]
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Colorado will get at least $100 million, possibly $1 billion, from infrastructure bill to end digital divide
Colorado’s efforts to end its rural digital divide could finally happen with the $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure bill, currently awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature. At least $100 million for broadband infrastructure will end up in Colorado, but it could be much more, said Tony Neal-Graves, chief information officer and executive director of the Colorado Office […]
Posted inEducation, News, Technology
Smaller Colorado providers are boosting students’ broadband speeds — and helping parents block TikTok
When schools switched to remote learning last spring as the pandemic took hold, Crystal Gonzales, a mother of five, wondered “How am I going to do this?” The Alamosa resident was juggling two part-time jobs and five children from a toddler to teenagers. With her kids at home and trying to help them focus on […]
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Students disappeared from classes when they lost internet. A rural Colorado school district’s creativity got them back online.
Marsha Cody calls it a “Christmas miracle.” Two days before Christmas, she got a call from Ciello, one of the local internet providers in the San Luis Valley. As the interim superintendent of the Alamosa School District, Cody was stumped about what to do as several students seemed to disappear each week. They no longer […]