USDA Reports On Round 1 Stimulus Awards
Posted by Kevin McGuire on Thursday, June 10, 2010 · 
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Yesterday, the USDA unveiled a report called “Connecting Rural America.” This report provides an overview of round one stimulus awards, and helps identify “… how broadband deployment funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) will improve the quality of life of over half a million rural American households.”
In the first round, RUS awarded just over $1 billion for 68 projects in 31 states. The report suggests that the projects will bring broadband service to an estimated 529,249 households, 92,754 businesses and 3,332 anchor institutions across more than 172,000 square miles. It compares the geographical size of the total projects to the state of California. Additionally, the projects will create about 5,000 immediate and direct jobs.
Other report highlights include:
- Types of awards funded:
- 13 last mile projects funded at $161 million (broadband to those >50 miles from a nonrural area)
- 49 last mile, non-remote projects funded at $739 million. (broadband to those <50 miles from a nonrural area)
- Six middle mile projects funded at $167 million
- Technologies funded:
- Wireline Fiber-Optic Cable – 48%
- Wireless Terrestrial Fixed – 23%
- Wireline xDSL – 14%
- Wireless Terrestrial Mobile – 5%
- Other – 6%
- Entity type funded:
- For-profit – 37 projects
- Cooperative or Mutual- 20 projects
- Public – 4 projects
- Other – 7 projects
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