TDS Telecom has put the final touches on a broadband stimulus project near Au Train and Chatham in Michigan, bringing service to nearly 1,300 homes thanks to an $8.6 million United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) grant.
The 1,300 homes total is about 400 more than TDS initially projected in its RUS grant application.
Getting to this point took nearly two years. In November 2012, TDS announced that a portion of the project in Michigan was completed, while the portion around Au Train remained a work in process.
Joe Kirk, manager of Project Implementation at TDS, said this was "a large and complicated project" that required the "effort of many teams, people and partnerships."
In addition to TDS' local and Madison, Wis.-based support teams, other partners included engineering company CHR Solutions, vendors Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Calix, Metaswitch Networks and R. Roese Contracting Company.
For this deployment, TDS' Chatham Telephone Company installed more than 125 miles of fiber optics cabling and 29 remote terminal (RT) cabinets that house its broadband loop carrier (BLC) equipment.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: TDS' stimulus program will breathe broadband life into 27,000 rural households
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