USDA has just announced $74.8 million in Telecommunications Loans and $11 Million in Community Connects grants to increase broadband access for rural areas in seven states. The Telecomm loans provide financing for the construction, maintenance, improvement, and expansion of telephone and broadband services in rural areas.
Since 2009, USDA has awarded 74 Community Connect grants totaling more than $77 million to build broadband projects in rural areas that previously did not have broadband services. Nearly $20 million of those funds were to provide broadband service in tribal areas and communities of Alaskan Natives.
The new Community Connect Grants www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/community-connect-grants will go to:
- The Arctic slope Telephone Association Cooperative, In., in Alaska will receive $1.4 million to provide Point Hope subscribers with high speed internet service and prepare the network for an undersea fiber connection currently planned for construction within the next two years.
- Minnesota’s Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC) will receive two $3 million for two projects to provide broadband service to subscribers on the Fond du Lac reservation. NESC will partner with the Fond du Lac Band of Superior Chippewa
- Oklahoma’s @Link Services will receive a grant for nearly $1.5 million to provide high speed broadband to homes, businesses, and critical community facilities in parts of Seminole County
- Virginia’s Scott County Telephone Cooperative will receive $2.1 million to build a broadband network with one gigabyte of bandwidth for 540 locations in Dickenson County
The Telecomm Loans www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/telecommunications-infrastructure-loans-loan-guarantees will go to:
- Garden Valley Telephone in Minnesota to receive $12.63 in loans to upgrade fiber and electronics
- South Carolina’s FTC Communications will use a $12.38 loan to upgrade their wireless telecommunications network to 4G/LTE
- In Montana, Triangle Telephone Cooperative Association will use a $29.95 million loan to upgrade their system
- In Wisconsin, LaValle Telephone Cooperative will use $7.61 million to deploy fiber and replace a switch to provide rural subscribers with improved services including VoIP, to help connect to Gigabit Ethernet and IP interfaces