“Broadband connectivity is not a luxury now, it is a necessity for today’s life,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said Wednesday at a Virtual Rural Broadband ReConnect Event.
“The lagging need is connectivity,” reiterates Secretary Perdue. Secretary Perdue on Wednesday announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be investing 24-million-dollars to provide broadband service to rural areas in Iowa.
“It’s a good day for Iowa,” Secretary Perdue says. “Twenty-four-million-dollars, bringing high-speed broadband to rural Iowa. It’s giving 56,018 people, 89 businesses and 439 farms a chance to house high-speed broadband.”
Chad Rupe, Administrator for the Rural Utilities Service, says three, rural Iowa cooperatives will receive funding, as part of USDA’s Broadband ReConnect Program.
“Harmony Telephone Company is receiving a $4.9 million loan and a $4.9 million grant to lay over 199 miles of fiber broadband. This project is going to connect 1,579 people in 619 homes, 96 farms, and 31 businesses,” Rupe says. “Then Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, of Stanton, is going to receive a $2.4 million loan and $2.4 million grant to lay over 167 miles of fiber to the premises, connecting 954 people, 383 households, 115 farms, and eight businesses. Lastly is Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telephone Company. They’re receiving a $5 million loan and $5 million grant to lay over 227 miles of fiber to connect 3,085 people, 1,344 households, 228 farms, and 50 businesses.”
Secretary Perdue add, “The folks in these service areas, from these three companies, are going to have a transformation of lifestyle by having this high-speed fiber available there.”
