(CNSNews.com) – Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and White House Economist Jared Bernstein on Wednesday announced $1.8 billion in new broadband Internet subsidies funded by the stimulus program. 
 
The subsidies are intended to encourage telecommunications companies to build broadband networks in rural areas where it is not normally profitable to do so.  (See White House news release)
 
In a conference call on Wednesday, Locke described the subsidies as “investments.” He said the taxpayer money would help build high-speed Internet networks in areas where the private sector has been “unwilling or unable” to do so.
 
“We’re seeing that without this investment by the federal government, so many of the for-profit, independent Internet service providers don’t find it economical to go into these [rural] regions,” Locke explained.
 
The subsidies will allow telecom companies to extend their services into poor, rural areas where demand has not been high enough to justify the companies investing their own money to build the networks – areas where there are not enough potential customers to make building the networks an economically sound decision.
 
By footing the bill for the upfront costs of building these networks, the government will give the telecom companies access to millions of potential new residential and commercial customers.