Last November, POTUS signed the Infrastructure Bill passed by the US House of Representatives, which includes $1.2 trillion for our country to improve roadways, invest in public transit, upgrade airports and ports, and many other tasks. For the last two years, during the pandemic, we saw many Americans around the US not having standard broadband speeds to work or learn from home or didn’t have access to the internet, which further expanded the digital divide. The Bill devotes $65 billion to expanding the country’s broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas (determined based on Mbps of download speed) according to FCC Coverage Maps. Of the $65 billion, $42.5 billion will be dedicated to the state levels to be used at their discretion.
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program will provide $100 million to each state to be used for Broadband grants, with additional funds to be allocated throughout the state to provide broadband to its residents in all communities. This money is expected to begin flowing to the organized states with existing Broadband Offices as soon as May or June 2022 to assist in upscaling their broadband capabilities. States that continue to build a Broadband Office that oversees the state, will likely be receiving their money in the second half of 2022. Kim Bayliss of the DC lobby firm Perry Bayliss states, “This is the last effort for the federal government to try to bridge the digital divide. The pressure is on for these states to accomplish that task.”
Over the last 30 years, C-Tech has trained individuals through its network of Certified Training Facilities worldwide to enter the broadband telecommunications workforce. Connectivity has been a consistently growing workforce since the advent of computerization and networked devices. Thanks to the Infrastructure Bill, all states now have a hefty push to ensure all residents have affordable and standard broadband speeds. This push across the country will open hundreds of thousands of new jobs for work-ready C-Tech Certified technicians that we have prepared through the teachings of our industry-driven, hands-on training programs. The telecommunications workforce has and will continue to grow exponentially with the new investments in building our national broadband infrastructure.
If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how to become a C-Tech Broadband Academy that is actively training America’s workforce- feel free to reach out to us directly at hello@c-techtraining.com