USDA Awards Rural Broadband Funding in North Dakota 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it had awarded $23 million in two high-speed broadband infrastructure projects that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 2,643 rural households and 78 businesses in North Dakota. This is one of many funding announcements in the first round of USDA’s ReConnect Pilot Program investments. 

Polar Communications will use a $21.2 million loan and grant combination in ReConnect Program funding to construct a fiber-to-the-premises network encompassing 1,870 square miles. The service area is expected to reach 2,237 households, six educational facilities, one health care center and one critical community facility in Grand Forks, Walsh and Pembina counties.  Daktel Communications will use a $1.8 million ReConnect Program grant to provide broadband service to 406 households and three educational facilities over 354 square miles. Daktel Communications is a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier that provides services within the Jamestown, N.D., exchange. 

USDA Rural Development North Dakota State Director Clare Carlson said that “[p]roviding critical communications investments in rural areas of North Dakota is important because when rural America thrives, all America thrives.  Polar Communications and Daktel Communications will use USDA’s ReConnect Program to provide essential broadband technology to rural areas, which is a utility as important as water, sewer and electricity. North Dakota farms and ranches, small businesses and families in these communities will experience a positive economic impact from access to broadband e-Connectivity.” 

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  USDA Awards Rural Broadband Funding in North Dakota, FCC Form 477 Data Released

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FCC Form 477 Data Released 

The FCC released updated data on fixed broadband deployment and mobile voice and broadband deployment as of December 31, 2018.  These data were collected through FCC Form 477 and are available on the Commission’s website. Fixed Deployment Data are available here  and can be viewed on the National Broadband Map here.   Mobile Deployment Data are available here.  The newly released fixed broadband data include revisions made by filers through December 3, 2019, while the mobile deployment data include revisions made by filers through June 11, 2019.  

For data on fixed broadband deployment, users can download data on the census blocks where providers report offering fixed broadband services to at least part of the block. These data tables also indicate the technology used to offer the service and the maximum advertised download and upload speeds for both consumer and business fixed broadband services. The data are available in CSV (comma delimited) format for both the entire United States and for individual states.  For data on mobile deployments, users can download coverage area shapefiles indicating mobile voice and broadband network deployment for each combination of provider and network technology, as well as separate CSV files depicting mobile coverage resulting from two different coverage analyses: centroid and actual area. 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.