Grants help rural Idaho beef up broadband internet service

While COVID-19 has had a huge human and economic cost, it has brought some unexpected benefits to rural Idaho. Grants funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and distributed by the Idaho Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee have allowed cities to improve broadband internet connectivity.

Such expansions offer economic development potential — particularly in an era where people are increasingly looking for ways to work from home, especially when workers from coastal regions are considering moving to Idaho for its quality of life and lower cost of living.

Bliss

On October 14, the city of Bliss received a tower to provide broadband internet, installed and operated by White Cloud Communications, using an $840,000 grant it received from the program.

“This broadband opportunity is great news for Bliss,” said Ervina Covcic, rural economic development specialist for Southern Idaho Economic Development, which partnered with the city, the Department of Commerce and Region IV Development on the project. “Many of our small businesses in rural communities suffer from lack of broadband which can ultimately lead to lost revenue and sales and connections to critical business resources. This grant provides the City of Bliss and its residents improvements in business operation, but also benefits the younger generation when it comes to distance learning in the COVID era.”

Before the project — which should be operational by mid-November — parts of Bliss had no internet service at all, said Brandy Lowe, administrative assistant for Region IV, in an email message.

“The service area covered by the new towers are in a geographically challenging area, and before now, no internet service providers were servicing it or within and around the city,” Lowe said. The project will offer a minimum of 25 megabit per second download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed to an estimated 100% of households in the area — and some individuals and businesses may be able to contract for as much as 100 Mbps upload and download speed, she said.

Payette

City government in Payette will also benefit. “The City of Payette already had broadband within our city limits, but with the assistance of Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, we applied for and received a grant in the amount of $175,000 to improve communication specifically for the City of Payette’s Public Safety Departments,” said Mayor Jeff Williams in an email message. “Rural communities such as Payette do not often have an opportunity such as this to upgrade their communications transport. When the State of Idaho offered this grant opportunity, it was a natural for us to expand our public safety presence.”

“The grant provides a great opportunity to expand this type of infrastructure to the City of Payette,” said Kit Kamo, executive director of the Snake River Economic Development Alliance, in an email message. “We are excited to see this develop into more potential projects.”

Pocatello

In addition, Nokia and Nextlink Internet recently announced a project to bring broadband internet to regions in 11 underserved states, including Bannock County around the city of Pocatello. The companies said they are deploying up to 25 towers per month to provide internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps downlink and 20 Mbps uplink.

Nextlink Internet can do this because it invested in a recent Federal Communications Commission auction of Citizens Broadband Radio Service airwave licenses, the company said.

The companies weren’t able to provide any more details about when the technology would be available in Idaho, how much it would cost, or to what degree CARES Act funding was involved.

Other CARES Act funding recipients include $2.97 million to the city of Driggs, which will allow Silver Star Communications to expand its fiber optic network in the city. In addition, 51 Idaho libraries in communities of fewer than 10,000 people will share a total of $2 million for Wi-Fi hotspots to provide up to gigabit broadband internet coverage, 24 hours a day, in their areas.