TDS Telecom has put the final touches on its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) broadband stimulus project serving six counties in central Wisconsin, a buildout that will extend broadband services to about 1,900 area households.
Serving Cranmoor and parts of Marathon, Portage, Clark, Jackson, Wood and Juneau counties, TDS initially projected this network would provide about 1,400 customers with Internet access.
For this project, the telco installed nearly 38 miles of fiber cabling and 26 Remote Terminal (RT) cabinets throughout its Central State Telephone Company territory.
Around the end of January, TDS announced that a portion of this build, around Cranmoor, was complete. Now that the entire project is complete, it will provide service in parts of six central Wisconsin counties.
The project cost about $5.1 million. A Rural Utilities Service (RUS) grant covered 75 percent of the cost and TDS invested the remaining 25 percent (nearly $1.3 million) to expand broadband to more businesses and residents.
Being in TDS' home state, the telco got ARRA funding for over 11 broadband stimulus projects that are in various stages of completion.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: TDS' stimulus program will breathe broadband life into 27,000 rural households
Related articles:
TDS extends broadband to rural customers in Idaho, Washington and Wisconsin
TDS Telecom's hosted and managed services revenue jumps 77 percent to $63.1M