USDA Announces Funding for Rural Broadband and Telcom Infrastructure

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $190.5 million in grants and loans to make broadband and other advanced communications infrastructure improvements in rural areas. "Modern telecommunications and broadband access is now as essential to the businesses and residents of rural America as electricity was in the 1930s," Vilsack said. "USDA is committed to ensuring that rural Americans have robust broadband and telecommunications systems. The investments we are announcing today will provide broadband in areas that lack it, help rural-serving public television stations begin using digital broadcasts, and support other telecommunications infrastructure improvements."

USDA is providing assistance to the following fiber-based telecommunications infrastructure projects through the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan program.

• Arkansas — Arkwest Communications
  $24,015,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-home network that will provide nearly 4,000 customers with voice, broadband and Internet television services, and make other system improvements.


• Georgia — Pineland Telephone Cooperative
  $16,498,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network to deliver broadband to customers and make other system improvements.


• Iowa — South Slope Cooperative Telephone Company
  $14,690,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and make other system improvements.


• Kentucky — Thacker-Grigsby Telephone Company
  $9,595,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and retire its copper-based fixtures.


• Missouri — Miller Telephone Company
  $8,425,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and make other system improvements.


• Okalhoma — Atlas Telephone Company
  $5,064,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-home network to deliver broadband to customers and make other system improvements.


• South Carolina — Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative
  $23,898,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and make other system improvements.


• Tennessee — Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative Corporation
  $29,753,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and make other system improvements.


• Texas and Oklahoma — Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative
  $10,303,000 to complete the co-op's fiber-to-the-premises network in Texas and make other system improvements.


• Utah and Idaho — Direct Communications Cedar Valley
  $7,695,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-home network that will provide customers with voice, broadband and streaming video services, and make other system improvements.


• Washington — Mashell Telecom (dba Rainier Connect)
  $24,483,000 to establish a fiber-to-the-premises network and make other system updates to improve broadband delivery for customers.

TOTAL: 11 Projects = $174,419,000