Pillen celebrates first Nebraska high-speed broadband project from federal funding

Gov. Jim Pillen is celebrating the first connection to high-speed internet made possible by federal infrastructure funding.

Pillen flew to Ogallala Thursday to see the first high-speed connection made from a tower northwest of the city to a home 11 miles away. The connection means the household now receives speeds exceeding 800 megabits per second download and 200 megabits per second upload — well above the federal program's 100 Mbps/20 Mbps minimum requirement, according to Vistabeam, the company that provides the service.

The development uses funds from the BEAD program, short for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, part of the 2021 infrastructure bill.

Under the Biden administration, Nebraska was slated to get $405 million from the program. Changes by the Trump administration cut that to $42 million by allowing use of alternatives including satellite connections instead of fiber optic cable, and eliminating labor, environment, and rate regulation requirements.

Vicki Kramer, director of the Nebraska Department of Transportation, said the original program was projected to reach 30,000 locations. She said the new version will reach about 14,000, at a much lower cost, and leave other funds available for precision agriculture, public safety and other quality of life improvements.

Pillen said he hopes the rest of the money will still come to Nebraska.

“There's $350 million of BEAD money that we won't use for the last mile (of fiber optic cable). So we're working very hard… on how the $350 million could be invested in Nebraska,” he said.

Those investments could include connections for precision agriculture, which Pillen said could save on insecticide and water use.