Initiative to add broadband to 90,000 homes
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Aug 31, 2015 | 8:58 pm
1 min read time
195 wordsAll Latest News, Innovation and EntrepreneurshipA multi-company initiative backed by $53.2 million a year in FCC grants will expand broadband service to 90,000 Iowa homes, Gov. Terry Branstad announced Monday.
“In Iowa, technology and access to broadband Internet is the great equalizer for our rural communities,” Branstad said in a statement. “We have put a focus on broadband Internet expansion because if our small businesses are to compete in a global economy, our schools are to have access to an abundance of online learning resources and our farmers are to connect their modern equipment for precision farming, we must connect every acre with broadband infrastructure.”
Expanding broadband service has been a top goal for a number of Iowa business associations, but efforts to create a state system to encourage the expansion have moved sluggishly in the Iowa Legislature.
Plans call for these four companies to build the expanded service over multiple years and to receive the following amounts annually:
- CenturyLink, $17.9 million to add service at 34,827 locations.
- Windstream, $28.7 million, 44,930 locations.
- Frontier, $4.2 million, 5,438 locations.
- Consolidated Communications, $2.4 million, 3,019 locations.
See a map of the areas to be served and get information on the subsidies offered to the companies.
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