MILTON, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced he is putting $144 million in federal money toward expanding broadband access in 41 counties around Florida.
The money will go to 58 different projects in rural parts of the state, DeSantis said.
“This will benefit many many under unserved homes and businesses all throughout the state of Florida. A lot of times they’ll be maybe in rural areas. Sometimes there’ll be ain unincorporated areas and they’re just logistically haven’t been able to do so we’re going to be able to come in and help with that,” DeSantis said.
Here’s a list of projects in Northeast Florida:
- City of Keystone Heights; Clay Hill, Middleburg, McRae and Virginia Village ($1,880,000) — to provide FTTH services to 1,917 premises, 42 businesses and 8 community anchor institutions in Clay County capable of symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 MBPS.
- Putnam County ($1,192,410) — to add 60 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide FTTH services to 1,192 unserved locations within Putnam County with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1GB.
- City of Archer; Town of Micanopy ($4,672,393) — to add 132 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide FTTH services to 1,701 unserved locations within Alachua County with minimum symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 MBPS.
- City of Gainesville ($1,438,610) — to add 27 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide FTTH services to 193 unserved locations within Alachua County with minimum symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 MBPS.
- Cities of Archer and Newberry ($4,822,632) — to add 78 miles of fiber optic cable to their existing network to provide FTTH services to 795 unserved locations within Alachua County with minimum symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 MBPS.
- City of Riverdale; Flagler Estates and Spuds ($1,830,000) — to add 118 miles of fiber optic cable to provide FTTH services to 1,603 unserved and underserved locations within St. Johns County with minimum symmetrical download and upload speeds of 1 GBPS.
- Cities of Botswick and Keystone Heights; Towns of Pomona Park, Interlocken, Melrose, and Welaka; Putnam Hall, George’s Lake, and Unincorporated Crescent City ($4,496,107) — to deploy fiber optic cable service to 2,986 unserved and underserved locations within Putnam County with minimum download speeds of 50 MBPS and upload speeds of 10 MBPS.
- Cities of Hampton, Lawtey, and Starke ($2,160,000) — to deploy fiber optic cable service to 2,111 unserved and underserved locations in Bradford County with minimum download speeds of 50 MBPS and upload speeds of 10 MBPS.
- Columbia County ($2,646,030) — to deploy fiber optic cable service to 1,725 unserved and underserved locations in Columbia County with minimum download speeds of 50 MBPS and upload speeds of 10 MBPS.
- City of Bunnell; Andalusia and Bimini ($527,659) — to add 20.2 miles of FTTP via ethernet passive optical network to connect 128 unserved and underserved homes and businesses in Flagler County with a standard starting speed of up to 300 MBPS download and 10 MBPS upload speeds.
This week, DeSantis said building opportunities for economic growth in Florida’s rural communities play an important role in creating lasting economic opportunities for all Floridians. He also wants the Legislature to approve $100 million in state funding to support broadband initiatives to expand high-speed internet deployment and access to Florida communities.
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