JULY 2, 2010 By Stephen Hardy -- U.S. President Barack Obama is expected today to announce 66 new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband projects, kicking off the second round of broadband stimulus awards. Once again, many of these awards will go to projects based on fiber-optic communications technology.
The projects involve last-mile, middle-mile, and public computing center applications. The $795 million in grants and loans through the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture to be announced today have been matched by more than $200 million in outside investment, for a total public-private investment of more than $1 billion, according to a White House statement.
The largest grant/loan combination, worth $48.1 million, will go to Wilkes Telephone & Electric Co. of Georgia. The money will fund a PON-based FTTH rollout throughout Lincoln, Taliaferro, and Wilkes counties in the state. Another major award will deliver $44.5 million to the University of New Hampshire System to make broadband service more readily available to New Hampshire’s households and businesses. Almost 1 million people and approximately 12,000 local businesses and 700 community institutions stand to benefit from up to 10 Gbps as well as dark fiber IRUs as a result of the project.
Other FTTH/FTTP grant/loan recipients will include:
- Northern Arkansas Telephone Co. of Arkansas ($3.7 million)
- San Carlos Apache Telecommunications Utility Inc. of Arizona ($10.5 million)
- Nunn Telephone Co. of Colorado ($5.2 million)
- The Darien Telephone Co., Inc. of Georgia ($448,000)
- The Farmers' Telephone Co. of Riceville, Iowa ($18.7 million)
- Grand River Mutual Telephone Corp. of Iowa ($9.3 million for a project in Iowa, another $20.3 million for a second project in Iowa and Missouri, and $11 million for a third project in Missouri)
- Ellsworth Cooperative Telephone Association of Iowa ($5.3 million)
- Breda Telephone Corp. of Iowa ($2.6 million grant/loan project coupled with $2.6 million in outside capital)
- Thacker‐Grigsby Telephone Co., Inc. ($7.4 million)
- Shawnee Telephone Co. of Illinois ($7.4 million grant/loan project coupled with $1 million in outside capital)
- H & B Communications Inc. of Kansas ($6.6 million grant/loan combined with $1.6 million in outside capital)
- J.B.N. Telephone Co., Inc. of Kansas ($3.3 million)
- South Central Wireless Inc. of Kansas ($1.1 million grant/loan combined with $576,000 in outside capital)
- Federated Telephone Cooperative of Minnesota ($1.3 million)
- Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Co. ($7.2 million)
- Project Telephone Co. of Montana ($15.5 million)
- Skyline Telephone Membership Corporation of North Carolina ($29 million)
- Consolidated Enterprises, Inc. of North Dakota ($11.6 million)
- S R T Communications Inc. of North Dakota ($4.4 million grant/loan project combined with $2.2 million in outside capital)
- Pine Telephone Co. Inc. of Oklahoma ($30.2 million)
- TrioTel Communications, Inc. of South Dakota ($12.3 million)
- Venture Communications Cooperative of South Dakota ($5.2 million grant/loan combined with $1.7 million in outside capital)
- Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative Corp. of Tennessee ($32.2 million)
- Marquette‐Adams Telephone Cooperative, Inc. of Wisconsin ($20 million)
- Reedsburg Utility Commission, Inc of Wisconsin ($5.2 million grant combined with $2.3 million in outside capital)
- Hardy Telecommunications, Inc. of West Virginia ($31.6 million)
Fiber-based middle-mile grant/loan combinations include:
- Hopi Telecommunications Inc. of Arizona ($3.6 million)
- Iowa Communications Network ($16.2 million grant with an additional $7.6 million applicant-provided match)
- Massachusetts Technology Park ($45.4 million)
- Zayo Bandwidth in Minnesota ($13.4 million grant with an additional $5.7 million applicant-provided match)
- Contact Network, Inc. of Mississippi ($20.7 million grant with an additional $5.2 million applicant-provided match)
- Project Telephone Co. of Montana ($3.9 million)
- French Broad Electric Membership Corp of North Carolina ($1.8 million)
- ComNet, Inc. of Ohio ($30 million grant with an additional $12.9 million applicant-provided match)
- Bend Cable Communications, LLC of Oregon ($4.4 million grant with an additional $1.9 million applicant-provided match)
- Blossom Telephone Co. of Texas ($2.8 million)
- Valley Telephone Cooperative, Inc. of Texas ($15.7 million)
- Central Utah Telephone, Inc. ($2.5 million)
- Vermont Telecommunications Authority ($33.4 million grant)
- Vermont Telephone Co. for a project that touches Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York ($12.3 million)
- Bristol Virginia Utilities Board ($22.7 million grant with an additional $13.5 million applicant-provided match)
- Silver Star Telephone Co. ($5.6 million grant with an additional $1.6 million applicant-provided match for a project I Wyoming and another $5 million grant with an additional $1.3 applicant-provided match for a second project in Wyoming and Idaho)
The grants and loans are part of an overall $7.2 billion investment the Recovery Act makes in expanding broadband access nationwide – $4.7 billion through the Commerce Department and $2.5 billion funded through the Department of Agriculture. With these awards, more than $2.7 billion in Recovery Act broadband grants and loans will have been awarded to more than 260 projects across the country since December 2009.