USDA awards $420 million in grants, $294 in loans for fiber deployments
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding more than $700 million in broadband funding for projects in 19 states as part of its ongoing ReConnect program focused on rural connectivity and development across the country.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the funding yesterday. The USDA’s ReConnect program got a fresh influx of funding as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act which set aside $65 billion for broadband deployments meant to close the digital divide and enable all Americans have access to high-speed broadband.
This is the ReConnect program’s fourth funding round; the USDA noted that since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, USDA has awarded funding for 142 ReConnect projects to bring high-speed internet access to 314,000 rural Americans.
“High-speed internet is a key to prosperity for people who live and work in rural communities,” Vilsack said, crediting the bipartisan infrastructure law for making sure that “we can ensure that rural communities have access to the internet connectivity needed to continue to expand the economy from the bottom up and middle out and to make sure rural America remains a place of opportunity to live, work, and raise a family.”
The projects in this round of grants and loans span geographically from Alaska to the West, Midwest and Southeast of the continental United States.
ReConnect funding recipients have to serve a rural area that doesn’t have access to broadband speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds. They also have to apply to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides subsidies for internet service.
The ReConnect projects (pdf) are all fiber-to-the-premises deployments and range from single-digit-millions to five figures of funding per project, including:
-A nearly $35 million grant to Interior Telephone Company of Alaska to build out a fiber network that will serve the Alaska Native villages of Shaktoolik, St. Michael, Stebbins and Unalakleet as well as some communities in the census area that includes Nome; USDA said the network will benefit 1,600 people, 48 businesses and three educational facilities.
-Another $35 million grant for the Nome Census Area, in which Mukluk Telephone Company will deploy a fiber network for 875 people, 30 businesses and six educational facilities that includes the Alaska Native villages of Inalik and Wales.
-A $30 million loan to Decatur Telephone Company to build out a fiber network in Benton County, Arkansas to serve 5,444 people, 74 businesses, 257 farms and four educational facilities.
-A combination of a $15 million grant and a $15 million loan to Oregon Telephone Company to provide a fiber network for 7,300 people, 145 businesses, 505 farms and four educational facilities in Ada and Canyon counties in Idaho and Grant County in Oregon.
-A $21 million grant and $21 million loan for a fiber project in the Oklahoma panhandle area on the border with New Mexico, in which Panhandle Telephone Cooperative will deploy a network to connect 1,284 people, 36 businesses, 696 farms and three educational facilities in Beaver and Cimarron counties in Oklahoma and Union County in New Mexico.
