Rural Telcos in the Midwest Benefit from More ReConnect Grants

NRTC telco members made up three of four winners of ReConnect broadband construction grants the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced.  McDonough Telephone Cooperative in Illinois; Alpha Enterprises Limited (formerly Upper Peninsula Telephone) in Michigan, and Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative in Minnesota between them won $43 million out of $63 million announced in the latest tranche of ReConnect support.

The latest announcement is a continuation of distribution from the third round of the ReConnect program. Several NRTC members already have received news of grants, loans or loan/grant combinations through ReConnect, which has awarded $1.7 billion in total during Round 3, and $3.2 billion since the program began in 2019. USDA received applications for Round 4 in late 2022 to distribute an additional $1.15 billion.

All three NRTC member-led projects will extend fiber-to-the- premises networks to remote areas. According to USDA, McDonough Telephone Cooperative will receive an $18 million grant to connect “1,583 people, 274 farms and 41 businesses” to a fiber network. Alpha Enterprises will connect more than a thousand people in two counties through a $19.5 million grant, and Paul Bunyan will reach 3,529 people in three counties with a $10 million grant.