{"id":132927,"date":"2026-01-22T03:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132927\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T03:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:37:20","slug":"29m-grant-brings-high-speed-internet-to-rural-central-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132927\/","title":{"rendered":"$29M grant brings high-speed internet to rural Central Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Texas Broadband Development Office<\/a> awarded the Lower Colorado River Authority a $29 million grant that will expand high-speed internet access and improve flood-monitoring infrastructure throughout Central Texas.<\/p>\n

Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock<\/a> announced the award Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

The details <\/p>\n

The Texas Broadband Development Office expects the financing to accomplish several goals, including:<\/p>\n

Extending fiber into underserved and unserved areasBolstering local economiesImproving access to education, health care and emergency services\u201cThis is exactly what smart infrastructure investment looks like,\u201d Hancock said in a news release<\/a>. \u201cThe July 4, 2025, floods were a sobering reminder that real-time data and reliable communications save lives. This project will both strengthen those capabilities and deliver daily broadband access to communities along the Lower Colorado.”<\/p>\n

Zooming in<\/p>\n

The Texas Broadband Development Office will utilize the $29 million grant to soon begin expanding its own core fiber network, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis grant helps us do two important things at once,” Phil Wilson, LCRA’s general manager, said in the news release. “We can make LCRA’s fiber network accessible to internet providers who want to serve rural customers, and we can expand connectivity for flood monitoring systems across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some background<\/p>\n

The Texas Legislature authorized LCRA in 2021 to develop and operate \u201cmiddle-mile\u201d broadband infrastructure, which connects private internet service providers, or ISPs, and their networks to a core fiber network.<\/p>\n

Notable quote<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have the infrastructure in place that can be expanded to meet the growing demand,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cNow we’re putting it to work for both broadband access and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also of note <\/p>\n

A $43.1 million grant<\/a>, awarded to Bastrop County through the Texas Broadband Development Office, will connect more than 10,000 Bastrop County homes and businesses to high-speed internet.<\/p>\n

The project, which is currently underway, is expected to be completed in late 2026, according to Bastrop County officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis total investment isn\u2019t just about internet service\u2014it\u2019s about opportunity,\u201d Bastrop County Precinct 4 Commissioner David Glass previously said in a statement.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Broadband Development Office awarded the Lower Colorado River Authority a $29 million grant that will expand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,13491,4696,56888,56889,1758,5621,10612,4162,56890,27],"class_list":["post-132927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bastrop","tag-bastrop-county","tag-broadband-development-office","tag-high-speed","tag-internet","tag-kelly-hancock","tag-lcra","tag-lower-colorado-river-authority","tag-phil-wilson","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}