Haslam to sign rural broadband bill in Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam is headed to West Tennessee to sign a bill seeking to make it easier for rural areas to get access to the internet.

The Republican governor is scheduled to sign the Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017 at a Tuesday afternoon ceremony in Brownsville.

The measure clears the way for nonprofit electric co-ops to start providing both internet and video service. It also provides $45 million in grants and tax credits to co-ops and internet service providers, like AT&T and Comcast, to encourage the development of internet in areas that don’t have it.

A last-minute change adopted by lawmakers lowered the minimum internet speed requirement from download speeds from the federal definition of 25 megabits per second to 10 megabits per second.

We’ll have more on Haslam’s visit this evening on WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News at 5 and 6.