Banks County and Jackson County are part of 28 Georgia counties that will soon receive funds to expand high-speed internet access through the Capital Projects Fund Grant Program.
Governor Brian P. Kemp announced Wednesday over $234 million in 29 preliminary grant awards for broadband internet expansion to help improve connectivity for communities, households, businesses, and anchor institutions in 28 counties.
Banks County will receive over $7.4 million and Jackson County will receive over $5.3 million. The awardees include 12 different internet service providers comprised of EMCs, large telecommunications companies and local Georgia-based companies.
"Georgia is again leading the nation in identifying where the digital divide is the deepest and acting on that knowledge to improve service for hardworking people all the way from Seminole County to Gordon County and beyond," Kemp said in a press release.
According to the press release, when combined with capital matches from the awardees, almost $455 million will be invested to serve over 76,000 locations in communities with the greatest need for high-speed internet access.
"High-speed internet access is critical for both academic and economic opportunities, as well as overall quality of life,” Kemp said in a press release. “These projects announced today will go a long way to helping Georgians in some of the most unserved and underserved parts of the state become better connected.”
On Aug. 12, 2022, Kemp announced the creation of the Capital Projects Fund Grant Program, utilizing funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget and the Georgia Technology Authority worked together to identify the most unserved and underserved counties in the state and established a competitive grant program.
These awards follow after the state announced $408 million in preliminary grant funds in February of last year. Together, the programs equal nearly $650 million in grant funds that will work hand-in-hand with hundreds of millions of additional matching funds. These investments and the projects associated with these two grant programs aim to serve roughly 200,000 of 455,000 unserved locations in the state.
