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YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University and the Western Reserve Port Authority have been awarded grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission to expand broadband workforce development and services in the region.
The $1.1 million given to YSU's Division of Workforce Education and Innovation is for the YSU Broadband and 5G Readiness Training Program, which will allow 165 people in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Ashtabula, Jefferson and Belmont counties to earn 375 credentials for careers in broadband and 5G.
"The deployment of 5G is expected to create approximately 32,000 jobs in network infrastructure over the next several years," Jennifer Oddo, executive director of the division, said. "This funding allows YSU to continue its leadership in ensuring that we develop the trained workforce to respond to those demands."
The port authority was given $49,970 for the Trumbull County Broadband Preliminary Engineering Study, which will look at a proposed fiber-optic loop designed to provide high-speed broadband service to four underserved communities in Trumbull County: Warren, Niles, Howland and Weathersfield.
Nick Chretien, planning and regional development manager for the port authority, said part one of the two-part project would develop a recommended network of high-speed routes. Part two would develop the best practices for deployment and recommended public / private partnerships to advance implementation.
A $30,000 local match is being provided by the communities.
The work builds off a previous study by Eastgate Regional Council of Governments of broadband capabilities in the region.
The funding is part of the Appalachian Regional Commission's $47 million POWER -- Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization -- initiative. In all, the program is supporting 52 projects in nine states in this latest round of funding.
POWER is a congressionally funded initiative that targets federal resources to help communities and regions that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power-plant operations and coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of America's energy production.
With this latest round of funding, ARC has invested about $366 million in 447 projects impacting 360 coal-impacted counties since POWER was established in 2015.