BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Cameron County wants to partner with the City of Brownsville to bring lightning fast fiber optic broadband to rural communities in the county.
This was confirmed by Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., in an exclusive interview with the RGG Business Journal.
“We were working on our own broadband project for the smaller communities that don't have accessibility to high-speed internet, and obviously building out that infrastructure takes a lot of dollars,” Treviño, Jr., said.
"Our project is smaller in scale from a potential dollar standpoint, and so, when I saw Brownsville got that much money, that peaked my interest a lot.”
The City of Brownsville recently secured a $22 million grant the from the Texas Broadband Development Office to expand fiber optic services. Jorge Cardenas, Brownsville’s chief information officer, said part of that money will help bring lightning fast fiber optic broadband to 17 surrounding cities and communities.
“With what the city itself has invested, and the fact that they want to connect to the outer communities, I’d like to not reinvent the wheel and to see how we can partner up and address broadband accessibility for the areas outside of Brownsville by utilizing Brownsville’s current and future infrastructure,” Judge Treviño told the RGG Business Journal.
Treviño first publicly acknowledged his desire to partner with the City of Brownsville at a recent YTexas regional conference held at The Livery Venue in Brownsville. Judge Treviño joined Albert Escobedo of RGV Desal South Texas, and Gilberto Salinas, CEO of Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation for the keynote panel discussion. It was titled “Building a Stronger, More Connected Texas.”
