RESEARCH TRIANGLE, NC – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded 126 Recovery Act broadband infrastructure projects in 38 states. Five North Carolina projects have won funding.The projects will create jobs in addition to providing broadband service in rural and under-served areas.

NC projects funded are:

Utopian Wireless Corp., which gets $460,000 to create WiMax infrastructure in and around Ridgewood, NC. It benefits approximately 3,000 people, 450 businesses, and 30 other community institutions.

Country Cablevision won an award of $25.3 million to deliver digital services to more than 33,000 people and about 1,900 local businesses in a rural NC area.

Atlantic Telephone Membership Corp. won $16 million provide an all Fiber-to-the-Premises network for high-capacity data, voice, and video services to critical community facilities and public safety entities. It may help more than 8,700 people, approximately 270 local businesses and 35 community institutions.

Wilks Telecommunications will use a $21.6 million award to provide last mile fiber optic high speed broadband, video and voice services to underserved Wilkes County areas. The project, which will create 160 jobs immediately, may benefit approximately 8,500 people, 3,300 businesses, and 45 other community institutions.

Lumbee River Electric Membership Corp. won $19.9 million to provide advanced fiber to the home broadband in a network with a speed of up to 100 megabytes per second. It could benefit benefit approximately 27,000 people, 1,600 businesses, and 100 other community institutions.

Related Stories:

• Golden LEAF Foundation awards $24M grant for NC rural broadband
• MCNC awarded $28.2M in broadband recovery funds
• MCNC awarded $75.75M in broadband recovery funds
• MCNC picks ONUG Communications for broadband expansion
• MCNC broadband project opens business opportunites in NC

© 2010, TechJournal. All rights reserved.

Tags: NC, Recovery Act Broadband projects