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Rural Broadband Bill Sent to Colorado Governor

Sean MacEntee

A bill to fund broadband connectivity in rural parts of Colorado is now on Governor John Hickenlooper’s desk. The Financing Rural Broadband Deployment Act passed the Colorado State House on Tuesday after several final amendments. The legislationwould use money from the same public utility that funds landline telephones to create opportunities for towns of less than 7500 people to pay for broadband infrastructure. Local leaders have been pushing for expanded broadband in Southwestern Colorado for some years, but funding and infrastructure development have been barriers. Lawmakers in Colorado, including the bill’s sponsor, Senator Don Coram of Montrose, say they hope the governor will sign it.

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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