TDS breaks ground on final ARRA stimulus-funded project

The Oklahoma project, near Harden City, Lula, and Pontotoc, is TDS’ final stimulus-funded project to get underway.

TDS Telecommunications Corp. (TDS®) says construction is underway on its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus project in Oklahoma, near the communities of Harden City, Lula, and Pontotoc. Once complete, about 300 customers will gain access to TDS’ high-speed Internet services. [NOTE: See TDS’ Mid-America Telephone company project map by clicking the hyperlink.]

“I’m pleased to announce that all of our ARRA stimulus-funded projects are now underway,” said Ken Paker, vice president of Network Services at TDS. “This is one of the 44 projects we received funding for. It’s our goal to complete this project, along with a majority of the others, by the end of the year. This means about 27,000 households will have access to our reliable, high-speed Internet service before 2014.”

TDS has hired Bear Communications out of Lawrence, Kan. to do the outside construction work on this project. Once the outside work is finished, TDS will complete the inside work. As Paker mentioned, the project is expected to be accessible to customers by the end of the year.

TDS is receiving partial funding for this project from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) as part of the ARRA. Last month, TDS announced completion of its project near Orchard Farm, Mo. Two additional TDS stimulus-funded projects are also accessible to a portion of households. These projects, around Chatham, Mich. and Wind Lake, Wis., are also expected to be completed by the end of the year.