Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai this week proposed establishing a pair of funds to restore and improve connections, including fixed broadband, in U.S. Caribbean territories ravaged by Hurricane Maria last summer.
The Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund and Connect USVI Fund would allocate $750 million and $204 million, respectively, to projects in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The agency said the money would include $256 million in new funds, with the remainder coming from repurposed universal service funding already directed to the islands.
“The people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still recovering from last year’s devastating storms,” Pai, who was visiting the territories late this week, said in a statement. “That means the FCC’s work is far from over.”
The proposal would immediately direct $64 million to short-term restoration efforts. An agency status report showed that about 4 percent of cellular sites in Puerto Rico and nearly 14 percent of the sites in the Virgin Islands remained out of service as of Wednesday morning.
The bulk of the proposed funding — $631 million — would go toward long-term restoration and expansion of fixed broadband connectivity, while $259 million would restore and bolster 4G LTE networks in the territories.
“With the 2018 hurricane season less than three months away, we need to take bold and decisive action,” Pai said.
