U.S. Department of Agriculture program provides loans and grants for a dozen rural broadband projects
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding a dozen projects in 11 states with loans and grants to provide or improve rural broadband service.
The USDA allocated about $88 million in loans and about $9.3 million in grants, and they involve both wired and wireless broadband services. Projects range in size from a $21.4 million loan to the Chibardun Telephone Cooperative in rural Wisconsin, to be used to expands four plants in its six exchanges and construct 675 miles of fiber-to-the-premises, improving service for about 2,700 people in Barron and Dunn counties; to a grant of nearly $400,000 to Inland Cellular in Idaho that will be used to build a fixed wireless LTE network at 3.65 GHz to provide coverage in Pierce, in Clearwater County to 266 households and 34 businesses, plus a 6 GHz microwave link for backhaul to the rest of the company’s network. The USDA said that a community center with half a dozen computer access points and Wi-Fi will be established, and free service will be offered to Pierce’s city hall, library and the Idaho Youth Challenge Academy.
A project in Maryland and Virginia, funded by a $2.4 million grant to Declaration Networks Group, involves providing fixed wireless service using 5 GHz spectrum as well as TV white spaces.
The funded projects are located in Arizona, Iowa, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. A full list of the grants and loans is available here (pdf). The funding is being provided through two mechanisms: the Telecommunications Infrastructure loan program and the Community Connect grant program.
Connectivity, the USDA said in its announcement of the projects, “is more than just connecting rural America to rest of the world. It is a vital tool for productivity, education, and health care. These investments will be key catalysts for facilitating rural prosperity through economic development and workforce readiness, and for improving quality of life.”
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