Puerto Rico receives $334M for telecommunications resilience | Top Stories

After Puerto Rico obtained a $127 million disbursement from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring fixed connectivity to 100% of Puerto Rico’s households, $334 million was added from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Development (BEAD) program, which will be used mainly for telecommunications resiliency.

“Puerto Rico received $334 million from the Insfractucture Investment and Jobs Act, and those funds are specifically directed to network resilience, a digital education program and an equipment affordability program,” said Wanda Pérez, president of the Puerto Rican Telecommunications Alliance.

“This is an important initiative for Puerto Rico. We all know that connectivity is essential, it is no longer a taste, it is rather something we need for our daily lives. Whether for entertainment, work, connecting with family, health, education, among others,” Pérez added.

Speaking about the $127 million granted by the FCC, the president of the Puerto Rican Telecommunications Alliance mentioned that it is estimated that by 2028, 100% of the locations in the country will be connected to high-speed Internet. These funds were identified as “Uniting Puerto Rico.”

For its part, the $334 million from the BEAD program is destined to build an underground conduit, which will give open access to telecommunications companies so they can underground their infrastructure and thus have a more resilient network.

At the event organized by the Fiber Broadband Association LATAM chapter together with the Puerto Rican Telecommunications Alliance, the president and CEO of Claro in Puerto Rico, Enrique Ortiz de Montellano, mentioned that Puerto Rico has a good telecommunications infrastructure and understands that in three years, the island will be the number one jurisdiction in the United States with 100% connectivity in homes.

“We have to attend to that population that wants to acquire connectivity services,” said Ortiz de Montellano. “We have to approach universities, we have to approach engineering, we have to talk about telecommunications curricula and create a hotbed of personnel. I believe Puerto Rico can be an important hotbed of telecommunications engineers,” he added.

Internet subsidy programs

Claro’s CEO and president mentioned that the program that provided internet service to teachers and students, the Emergency Connectivity Program, ended last March. It involved 80,000 teachers and students. Meanwhile, the Affordable Connectivity Program, which connects 600,000 homes, ends at the end of April, but he is confident that new funds can be identified for those purposes.

“As far as I know, there is a last effort by the federal government to try to extend the fund for homes, and it seems that it will be possible to extend it. In the meantime, we are keeping an eye on the previous clients, advising them that the subsidy has run out and that now they have to continue as they were before. New customers are being offered some moderate rate alternatives to see if they want to continue,” said Ortiz de Montellano.

According to Claro’s president in Puerto Rico, the offers are in the low $30 range for 50 megabytes of Internet.