Vice President Biden is in Georgia today to announce the first round of ARRA-funded broadband projects. The last deadline the RUS/NTIA gave was that they’d start announcing funded projects in mid-December and it looks like they are going to make that prediction.

According to ABC News,

The White House outlined four types of awards being made today:

Middle Mile Awards – Build and improve connections to communities lacking sufficient broadband access.
Last Mile Awards – Connect end users like homes, hospitals and schools to their community’s broadband infrastructure (the middle mile).
Public Computing – Expand computer center capacity for public use in libraries, community colleges and other public venues.
Sustainable Adoption – Fund innovative projects that promote broadband demand.

AP Technology goes so far as to preview a few of the recipeints:

• A $33.5 million grant to the North Georgia Network Cooperative for a fiber-optic ring that will bring high-speed Internet connections to the northern Georgia foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The project will serve an eight-county area with a population of 334,000.
• A $25.4 million grant to the Biddleford Internet Corp., a partnership between the University of Maine and service providers, to build three fiber-optic rings across rural Maine. The network will pass through more than 100 communities with 110,000 households and will connect 10 University of Maine campuses.
• A combined grant/loan of $2.4 million to the Consolidated Electric Cooperative in north central Ohio to build a 166-mile fiber network that will be used, among other things, to connect 16 electrical substations to support a smart grid project.
Other projects receiving funds include a 4G wireless network to be built by an Alaska Native Corporation in southwestern Alaska, a fiber-to-the-home project in a remote corner of New Hampshire and computer centers for 84 libraries in Arizona.

So what does that mean in Minnesota? I don’t know. I’ve only heard of two projects in Minnesota that have been contacted for more information. (That being said I haven’t done a survey or any research. This is just what I’ve heard.)

I have also heard that an announcement will be made soon about funding for mapping in Minnesota. (Spoiler alert, I think we’ll hear that Minnesota got funding.) Perhaps that is part of the announcement today, although I don’t think it will be. Some mapping projects have already been announced and it seems as if the mapping announcements have been handled different from other grant applications.

Thanks to Steve Borsch & John Schultz for keeping me informed today!