TDS Telecom (NYSE: TDS) has put the finishing touches on three more broadband stimulus projects that will extend services to 1,100 more households in parts of Indiana, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
In Camden, Ind., the project will provide service to about 300 households. The telco installed about seven miles of fiber cabling and six remote terminal (RT) cabinets throughout its Camden Telephone subsidiary exchange. The Rural Utilities Service grant covered 75 percent of the cost, or over $360,000 to expand broadband service.
TDS' Kearsage Telephone subsidiary deployed three RT cabinets and fiber for its project around Salisbury, N.H., that will enable 130 households to get Internet service. TDS said the cost of the project was about $500,000 with the RUS grant covering 75 percent and TDS investing the remaining 25 percent, or $125,000.
Finally, the project in Southeast Wisconsin, around Wind Lake and Waterford, provides Internet service to nearly 700 households in the area, about 130 more households than TDS initially projected in its application.
Throughout the Southeast Telephone of Wisconsin exchange, TDS installed nearly 13 miles of fiber cabling and three RT cabinets to deliver DSL service to the customers. This project cost about $1.26 million with the RUS grant covering 75 percent, and TDS investing 25 percent, or $315,000.
The projects in these three states are among 44 for which the telco is receiving funding from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) as part of the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) to extend broadband services to remote areas it could not make a business case to serve.
TDS has completed five ARRA projects this year, including one in Port Byron, N.Y., and near Orchard Farm, Mo. It also expects projects around Chatham, Mich., to be completed by the end of the year and has three other underway in Arizona, Kentucky and Mississippi.
For more:
- see the release
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