TDS expands broadband to more than 31,000 households via ARRA-funding assistance

TDS was one of the few telecoms to aggressively apply for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS). As a result of the demonstrated need and desire to expand high-speed broadband Internet services to more customers, TDS was awarded 44 total grants to expand services in 20 states.

To date, TDS has completed nearly all of the 44 projects resulting in more than 31,000 households gaining access to a high-speed Internet connection. These projects are also impacting businesses, hospitals and schools. The remaining projects are expected to be completed in the next six to eight months.

"We leveraged the best technologies available to deliver service to more customers in many rural unserved and underserved areas," said Larry Boehm, director of network implementation and optimization for TDS. "When we looked at the engineering designs, we looked at getting fiber as deep as possible. We also looked at how we could reuse copper to deliver faster speeds."

Total project costs were estimated at nearly $136 million. TDS invested about $31 million and the remaining projects were funded through the ARRA grants.