Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the good news …
U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) today (Wednesday, Aug. 18)announced $23,666,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for three broadband projects in Minnesota.
…
Sjoberg’s, Inc. – This approximately $866,000 award will allow Sjoberg’s, Inc. to offer FTTH broadband service in Roseau, Thief River Falls, and the hamlet of Fox. This project will benefit many small farms located in the “grain belt”. Approximately 656 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 15 businesses and 3 community institutions.
Carver County – This nearly $6 million award will allow the County of Carver to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in south central Minnesota. The project plans to connect schools, libraries, and community colleges, including the Waconia Library and the South Metro campus of the Dunwoody College of Technology, to improve educational services, distance learning, and remote teaching. The project also proposes to construct 121 miles of new fiber that will be open to as many as nine last-mile providers in the region in order to improve commercial broadband availability and adoption. As many as 57,600 people stand to benefit as do 2,700 businesses.
Enventis Telecom – This approximately $16.8 million award, with more than $7.2 million in matching contributions, will allow Enventis Telecom to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota. The project plans to directly connect 70 community institutions to broadband. As many as 350,400 people stand to benefit as do 28,000 businesses. Enventis estimates that the project will create more than 250 jobs.
I’ve been hoping to write more on a third project with a toe in MN: The Merit Networks/Bloomingdale Communications/Michigan State project: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11437193
I’ll write more later – but wanted to amend this post today
By: Ann Treacy on August 20, 2010
at 4:43 pm
[...] the recent Enventis/Hickory Tech ARRA award Slowly but surely, I’m trying to feature the Minnesota ARRA awards. I wanted to look into the recent Eventis award today – but the description in most of the ARRA [...]
By: A closer look at the recent Enventis/Hickory Tech ARRA award « Blandin on Broadband on August 21, 2010
at 2:53 pm
[...] broadband project A couple of weeks ago, Carver County got the good word on their ARRA application. Here’s a quick reminder on their project… Carver County – This nearly $6 million award will [...]
By: More on Carver County’s ARRA-funded broadband project « Blandin on Broadband on September 1, 2010
at 10:51 pm