TDS Telecom (NYSE: TDS) continues to make headway with its broadband stimulus program, completing a project in Hyden, Ky., and part of another in Maine.
With the Hyden buildout completed, the service provider will be able to provide broadband service to businesses and about 2,100 households, which amounts to about 500 more than it initially planned.
It finished part of this project in late November. For this deployment, TDS' Leslie County Telephone Company subsidiary installed 94 miles of fiber optics cabling and 22 Remote Terminal (RT) cabinets.
The telco said the projected cost of the project was a little more than $8.2 million with the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) grant covering 75 percent of the cost and TDS investing the remaining 25 percent, or $2 million, to complete it.
In related news, the telco also completed part of a stimulus-funded broadband Internet project in Hartland and St. Albans, Maine, making service accessible to some residents.
When it wraps up the project this spring, TDS will provide nearly 600 residents with a broadband connection. TDS' Hartland and St. Albans Telephone Company is installing more than 20 miles of fiber cabling and 11 RT cabinets throughout its serving territory.
Progress in St. Albans follows a similar project it partially completed earlier this month south of Kingfield, Maine.
In addition to Kentucky and Maine, the telco has recently completed parts of rural network broadband upgrades in Alabama, New Hampshire and its home state of Wisconsin via RUS-related grants.
When it completes its 44 projects, TDS said it will be able to deliver broadband service to a total of nearly 27,000 homes that it could not economically reach before.
For more:
- see the Kentucky release
- and the Maine release
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