State Representative Jim Struzzi has signed on as a cosponsor of a bill that would pump $100 million in federal stimulus money into the Unserved High Speed Broadband Funding Program.
Struzzi says the covid-19 pandemic “really exposed out lack of access to an acceptable level of high-speed internet…” which he termed a “fundamental need.” He says broadband “should be treated as a basic need.” Likening the expectation that high-speed internet will be there to the same expectation that water will come out of the faucet or the lights will come on when you flip a switch, Struzzi says it’s “essential to the way we conduct business and educate our children.”
The Department of Community & Economic Development’s definition of an “unserved” area is one in which households or businesses do not have access to at least 25 megabits per second downstream speeds and 3 megabits per second upstream speeds. According to the Census Bureau, that’s 20 percent of Pennsylvania households.
