USDA Rural Development today announced $4.5 million in grants to advance and improve broadband services in rural North Dakota.
“These investments will offer a reliable, high-speed internet connection to regions lacking broadband service,” said Jasper Schneider, USDA Acting Administrator for Rural Utilities Service. “Access to this technology opens up opportunities that will help boost our rural economies and provide a foundation for future growth.”
USDA is providing assistance through the Community Connect Grant program, which establishes broadband service in rural areas for economic development and offers educational, health care, social and public safety benefits. The projects listed below will bring high-speed broadband capabilities to customers who otherwise have no broadband or lesser quality services such as dial-up, satellite or mobile wireless services.
BEK Communications Cooperative (Steele, N.D.): $2,136,045 grant. The funds will deploy Fiber-to-the Home (FTTH) technology and other services to the unserved area of northeast Morton County and southeast Oliver County. The fiber network will be flexible to meet the demands of population growth and will support the implementation of new technologies and new services anticipated in the future.
Daktel Communications, LLC (Jamestown, N.D.): $2,370,354 grant. The funds will be used to construct a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) system to bring broadband services to an unserved rural area of Stutsman County along highway 281, south of Jamestown.
Since 2009, under USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), more than $300 million has been invested in North Dakota broadband projects. Further information on these and other rural programs is available by visiting USDA's web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/nd.