Broadband Service

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Department of Community & Economic Development

Pennsylvania is home to one of the country’s most aggressive broadband deployment commitments - by 2015, and as early as 2008, every city, town and village will have access to broadband service, even in the most rural areas. The Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) has information on its website explaining about the Broadband Initiative in Pennsylvania.

Do You Want High-Speed Internet Service? - Brochure that explains how consumers can receive high-speed access to Internet service.

It is indisputable that a successful telecommunications infrastructure is vital in the 21st century. With an expansive and established broadband service, Pennsylvania will be even more attractive to businesses; and, a wide-reaching broadband network will help schools to provide a more interactive learning environment in order to bridge the digital divide.

Increased telecommunication through broadband has many implications - some of which haven't even been discovered yet.

Bona Fide Retail Request Program (BFRR) - A link to DCED's website, which provides information to each participating company's website and provides information on how to get forms requesting service. The BFRR was established by Act 183 of 2004. This consists of a program developed and implemented by participating Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) in order to attract and aggregate requests for services. If you reside in the service territory of Verizon, Embarq, or Windstream, and advanced services are not currently available, the Bona Fide Retail Request Program allows you to submit a written request for services.

Business Attraction and Retention Program (BARP) - DCED's website provides links to the participating companies' websites (Verizon, Sprint, and Windstream) and provides information on how to make a request to get broadband service for your business. The Business Attraction & Retention Program recognizes the importance of telecommunications infrastructure to economic development by creating a mechanism to accelerate deployment for economic development purposes. Through the BARP program, DCED aggregates demand and assists with the deployment of broadband to qualifying businesses. Act 183 of 2004 establishes a process to allow the DCED to accelerate broadband deployment in order to serve economic development projects. The Act requires that broadband service in qualified areas be provided no later than one year after a request has been made.

Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund (BOAF) - The Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund is a vehicle whereby DCED will be responsible for outreach programs concerning the benefits, use and procurement of broadband services as well as providing seed grants to aggregate customer demand in communities with no service. The BOAF is a grant program designed to help communities aggregate the demand for broadband service and require local telephone companies to respond to the new demand for services in a more timely fashion.