The U.S “Accessible and Affordable Internet for All Act” focuses on areas that could be termed as underprivileged in terms of quality and high-speed internet service.
A new bill has been presented in the U.S assembly that aims at providing high-speed internet in areas that were not catered for before in terms of quality internet service. The new bill aims at providing high-speed MBs to far-flung locations and backward communities.
The bill has been presented by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, which asks for easily accessible and affordable Internet service for all. The desired budget allocation for an effective project has been measured somewhere around $94 billion to make sure that quality highspeed and fair-priced internet has been made available for all in America. The bill has been presented in the U.S senate by Amy Klobuchar, the Senate Broadband Caucus’s Co-chairperson.
The total allocated budget for the project, $80 billion, is destined to be spent on laying down broadband infrastructure across America. However, the key focus will remain to provide high-speed, economical internet service to those who can’t pay hefty amounts. It includes underserved rural, suburban, and urban areas. The Internet service providers to get the state project’s funding will then be liable to provide consumer-friendly and cheap data plans to all. The bill aims to authorize $5 billion on a new program in the next five years. It will aim at developing low-interest financing for internet infrastructure build-out projects.
Additional funding of $6 billion is destined to be spent on the ’emergency broadband benefit .’ It will provide low-income Americans with a monthly discount of $50 and $75 for the ones living on the American tribal lands.
A fund of $2 billion is set aside for the ‘Emergency Connectivity Fund’ for students in need of effective internet connectivity and to make high-speed internet available on school buses. The senate’s announcement stated this legislation resulted from a never-ending collaboration between Clyburn’s House Rural Broadband Task Force and the commerce committee.
In a statement, Clyburn said, “Broadband access today will have the same dramatic impact on rural communities as the rural electrification efforts in the last century. When I formed the Rural Broadband Task Force, our mission was to address the digital divide. The disparate effects of that divide have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic and exposed the urgency of ensuring universal access to high-speed internet. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to enact the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act.”