Fiber-optic broadband is cable, but it’s not cable TV. Or maybe it is? How the internet is provided can be as confusing as the rabbit holes found on the internet itself, so here’s a basic primer of the technology, and some of the funding mechanisms being used across Tennessee to speed its deployment.

Copper Cable internet: Traditional, cable-television lines into homes that also can carry data sent in the form of electrical signals.

Fiber-Optic internet: Also, a cable, but one featuring thin glass or plastic fibers. Data travels through them as a stream of light pulsed in a pattern.

BEAD: The Broadband Access, Equality & Development program. A part of the larger Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (itself a part of the ARA, see below), this program includes $42 billion in federal funds specifically earmarked for high-speed (broadband) internet access.

American Rescue Plan, or ARP: Federal legislation designed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and communities. Among its programming subsets are BEAD (see above).

TEBF-ARP: The portion of Tennessee’s ARP Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds earmarked to support the build out of broadband infrastructure statewide.

Tennessee-based Programs: The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has recently launched four new programs in tandem with its latest round of funding:

• Digital Skills, Employment and Workforce Development (DSEW)

• Connected Community Facilities (CCF)

• Broadband Ready Communities (BRC)

• Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Broadband Workforce grants.