These are the first awards made under the Community Connect program's new guidelines that now allow applicants to fund broadband infrastructure for more than one community, and raise the minimum required speed. Projects funded must deliver broadband at five megabits per second (Mbps).
The granted broadband awards are for:
The interesting parts about the grants are the free services that the grantees will provide back to the communities. Some of the grants will permit the creation of community centers or critical community facilities where all users will have access to free service for at least two years. Other grants fund broadband service builds offering 20 Mbps+ speed for Residential Customers and 100 MB speeds for Business Customers. Finally, the most interesting grants are the 2 Kentucky grants that deploy high-speed broadband that will allow access to real time weather radar and national weather updates to address severe weather conditions.