USDA invests $10 million in Michigan rural broadband

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USDA invests $10 million in Michigan rural broadband

Michigan has been awarded more than $10 million from a new USDA grant to bring high-speed broadband internet to rural communities.

Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce says funding is part of $550 million dollars  Congress allocated to the second round of the ReConnect Program.

 “If we think about where we’ve been as a country in the last six or seven months in the pandemic, it’s really accentuated, frankly, the real need for connectivity,” he says.

Allband Multimedia LLC will use a $3.5 million ReConnect grant to deploy a fixed wireless network in Alpena, Alcona and Iosco counties.

Southwest Michigan Communications Inc. will use a $3.3 million ReConnect grant and a $3.3 million ReConnect loan for a fiber-to-the-premises network in Van Buren, Kalamazoo and Allegan counties.

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