I guess "equity", meaning running fiber to rural areas, even if they usually lean red, means "woke"?
Or is it that "woke" now just means any internet infrastructure that isn't Starlink?
Or is it that "woke" now just means any internet infrastructure that isn't Starlink?
> In addition, states had to prove that they promoted participation from minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and “other socially or economically disadvantaged individual-owned businesses.” They also had to create a Five-Year Action Plan that required collaborating with unions and “underrepresented communities,” including prisoners, LGBTQI+ individuals, women, and people of color.
If you support incorporating race and identity group preferences into government infrastructure projects, just own that instead of obfuscating.
They didn't come up with program out of nowhere, it's been well studied those groups had less connectivity and broadband availability.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10688393/
I'm not sure what your point is here besides that you dislike inclusion. The point of the program is to level the playing field by offering broadband where it might not normally have been profitable to expand.
Outreach shouldn't slow anyone down. The cost of doing some marketing and data analysis is probably miniscule compared to the actual infrastructure build out.
It's not about outreach to those groups so they can connect to low-cost internet, it's about who builds out the network itself.
It's all in the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the program.
The only reference to actually diversity in the actual build out are:
* Complying with CFR 200.321, considering MWBE are considered in subcontracting, which is standard in many federal contracts
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/p...
* Non-discrimination in hiring, also standard in federal contracts
* Encouraging, but not requiring awardees to broaden their recruitment to underrepresented groups: > Ensuring that subgrantees prioritize hiring local workers and have robust and specific plans to recruit historically underrepresented populations facing labor market barriers and ensure that they have reasonable access to the job opportunities created by subgrantees
I’ve got 10-gig fiber to my house and drive an SUV, I don’t care. The people who should be most upset about this stuff are the folks who want government to facilitate building fiber, trains, etc.
The act defines an "underserved area" as having less than 100/20 speeds.
Which Starlink doesn't meet: https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1400-28829-70