Funding - Awards

The following is a partial list of awards for broadband and related projects.

• Union Telephone Company (Union Wireless) was recently awarded nearly $23,000,000 in support to build mobile broadband to unserved areas in Wyoming. Union competed in Phase 1 of FCC’s Connect America Fund Mobility Auction and was the winning bidder in 6 census tracts.

  Union was one of the largest auction winners in terms of total amount of funding and total geographic area (road miles) served across the U.S. The service will be built to at least 75 percent of the road miles in the areas shown in the map below over the next few years. (Click on map to zoom in on funded service areas).

  Click here to read more about the Mobility Fund and view all Phase 1 awards by state and county.

The following map shows the 37 States where new broadband will be deployed as a result of the first phase of the Connect America Fund. The amount of funding by State and number of locations receiving support can be shown by moving your mouse over each State.

The Connect America Fund aims to connect 7 million unserved rural Americans to broadband in six years, and puts the nation on a path to connect all 19 million unserved rural residents by 2020. The FCC launched this unprecedented broadband expansion last year when it reformed and modernized the Universal Service Fund, which connected rural America to the telephone network in the 20th century.

The Commission created the Connect America Fund to unleash the benefits of broadband for all Americans in the 21st century. In the first phase, about $115 million of public funding will be coupled with tens of millions more in private investment to quickly expand broadband infrastructure to rural communities in every region of the nation.

In Dec. 2011, USDA announced new funding awards through the agency's Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program.

Two Wyoming school districts were included in this slate of awards:

• Fremont County School District #2 | $473,905
• Big Horn County School District #2 | $467,885

The state of Wyoming and CenturyLink announced an agreement in Sept. 2011 to provide broadband connectivity to 13 additional cities across the state, including Sheridan, Cody and Buffalo.

More than 1,000 Internet users in central and southern Wyoming will soon see a jump in their Internet speeds, thanks to an $11.4 million federal loan announced on Aug. 22, 2011. Dubois Telephone Exchange will use the money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Community Connect program to build and improve fiber-optic cable lines to customers in Dubois and Baggs, as well as rural customers in Fremont County, the Little Snake River Valley and on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The loan is expected to create 100 jobs and save up to 150 others.

USDA announced 2010 funding of 45 telemedicine projects that will help rural areas receive advanced technology in healthcare. The 106 projects total more than $34.7 million and will be distributed through the agency’s distance learning and telemedicine program. The Fremont County School District #38 was awarded $495,602 in this round of funding.

NTIA has awarded an additional $2.36 million grant to continue Wyoming's broadband mapping and planning project three additional years.

List of NTIA and RUS Awards benefiting Wyoming as of Sept. 30, 2010. These awards include funding for infrastructure, public computer centers and sustainable broadband adoption programs.

NTIA has announced 35 new BTOP awards, totaling over $482 million. This round of awards did not include any projects in the State of Wyoming.

Read more about the awards and recipients in U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's Sept. 13 announcement.

USDA has awarded 43 additional awards for infrastructure projects located in 27 states. This slate of awards, announced on Sept. 13, did not include any projects benefiting Wyoming.

View the full list of awards.

The White House released an announcement of additional Round 2 BTOP and BIP funds awarded by USDA and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Two multi-state projects that may benefit Wyoming were included in this slate of BTOP/BIP awards announced on August 18.

• Hughes Network Systems (multi-state): This approximately $59 million award will allow Hughes Network Systems to offer satellite broadband service to rural residential and commercial subscribers nationwide. Approximately 258,685 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 3,200 businesses.
• Wildblue Communications (multi-state): This approximately $20 million award will allow Wildblue Communications to expand satellite broadband service. Approximately 110,150 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 4,896 businesses.

NTIA announced a nearly $15 million ARRA investment to help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth, and improve communications for people with disabilities nationwide. The grant to Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. (CSD) intends to expand broadband adoption among people who are deaf and hard of hearing and provide them with tools to more fully participate in the digital economy. CSD’s Project Endeavor plans to employ a mix of discounted broadband service and specialized computers, technology training from an online state-of-the-art support center customized to the community’s needs, public access to videophones at community anchor institutions across the country, and a nationwide outreach initiative.

All BTOP awards will be made by September 30, 2010.

RUS has posted their initial list of Round 2 BIP awardees. The list does not include any projects in the State of Wyoming.

The first slate of Round 2 BTOP and BIP awards has been announced.

Two Wyoming projects and one nationwide project impacting Wyoming were included in the first slate of BTOP/BIP awards announced on July 2, 2010.

• Silver Star Telephone Company: This $5.6 million grant with an additional $1.6 million applicant-provided match will close a 90-mile gap in the company’s existing statewide fiber optic network, bringing comprehensive broadband services to 11 counties and providing direct connections for approximately 15 community anchor institutions in western Wyoming.
• Silver Star Telephone Company: This $5 million grant with an additional $1.3 applicant-provided match will close a 38-mile gap in its existing 159-mile fiber optic network in northwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho, bringing comprehensive broadband services to five counties in the region and direction connections for a dozen community anchor institutions, including Brigham Young University’s Idaho campus and Teton National Park service.
• University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development: This $62.5 million grant with an additional $34.3 million applicant-provided match will interconnect more than 30 existing research and educational networks, creating a nation-wide high-capacity network that will enable advanced networking features for more than 100,000 essential community anchor institutions.

RUS has posted a listing of the USDA's Community Facilities Program's Awardees and Applicants. This list can be used by applicants of the Rural Library Broadband Grant Program to identify those libraries which were constructed, or are to be constructed, with funding from the USDA’s Community Facilities program of the Rural Housing Service.

No awards were granted to projects in Wyoming.

NTIA Announces Broadband Mapping/Planning Grant for Wyoming

RUS has completed their list of all Round 1 Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) awards.

No RUS projects were awarded in Round 1 for the State of Wyoming.

NTIA awarded 82 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants worth $1.2 billion. The remainder of the NTIA monies will be awarded as required by ARRA by September 30, 2010.

Outside the SBDD grant, Wyoming did not receive additional BTOP funding in Round 1.

Round 1 NTIA Grant Awards

State's Comments Submitted to NTIA Regarding BTOP Applications

The Recovery Act authorized the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to consult with states, territories, possessions, and the District of Columbia regarding the identification of unserved and underserved areas within their borders and the preferred allocation of grant funds to projects in or affecting their states.

Consistent with this objective, on April 2, 2010, NTIA invited each state, via its governor, to provide input on geographic areas for which NTIA should give priority in selecting projects for funding. NTIA also extended the invitation to approximately 580 tribal entities to comment upon applications that proposed serving tribal communities in an effort to fund projects that best meet the needs of their tribal lands.

States and tribes were also invited to comment on specific BTOP applications that proposed serving areas within their jurisdiction, regardless of the size or geographic scope of the project, and describe why certain applications meet the greatest needs of the state or tribe. The input of states and tribes was consultative in nature and only constituted one of several factors NTIA weighed when evaluating applications.

On April 30, 2010, Governor Dave Freudenthal submitted a letter providing comments and explanations of four Wyoming projects that would meet critical needs in the state.

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