Jan. 26, 2010

Gov. Nixon details $19.1 million federal broadband award to expand broadband Internet in northeast Missouri
Competitive grant funds will deliver high-speed fiber-optic cable directly to consumers in Ralls County

Gov. Jay Nixon, left, announces the $19.1 million federal award to Ralls County Electric Cooperative as state Sen. Wes Shoemyer and co-op manager Dan Strode listen.

NEW LONDON, Mo. - Gov. Jay Nixon today visited Ralls County Electric Cooperative in New London to detail a $19.1 million competitive federal award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand broadband Internet to thousands of residential and commercial customers in northeast Missouri.

The funding, which is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will help the Cooperative lay nearly 1,218 miles of high-speed, fiber-optic cable to nearly 5,000 homes, businesses, public safety entities, and community organizations in rural, northeast Missouri. This application was a key piece of Gov. Nixon's MoBroadbandNow Initiative, which the Governor rolled out at Ralls County Electric Cooperative five months ago.

As part of this successful application, Missouri pledged $950,000 in matching funds to help purchase equipment that would be used to deliver the fiber-optic cable directly to the doorsteps of consumers for a fair price. The state matching funds for this project would come from a $40 million allocation, from the federal budget stabilization fund, approved by the Missouri legislature this year for broadband enhancement projects.

"This successful partnership between the state and the Ralls County Electric Cooperative will ensure that homes and businesses across rural Missouri are connected to the information superhighway of the 21st century," Gov. Nixon said. "Our innovative plan will help small businesses in northeast Missouri expand their markets, connect doctors and patients and bring higher education into reach for more Missouri families."

The Ralls County broadband project was part of a five-year initiative Gov. Nixon launched in August 2009. The initiative, the MoBroadbandNow Project, would expand broadband accessibility to 91.5 percent of the total population, a significant increase from current projected accessibility of 79.7 percent.

Pulse Broadband, the contractor on the Ralls County project, estimates that constructing, maintaining and repairing the new broadband network will create 35 to 40 new jobs, with the potential to help facilitate the creation of more than 1,300 additional jobs in the future.

Construction of the new fiber network is scheduled to begin in March 2010 and should be completed no later than May 2013. Customers will be connected to the new network throughout the construction process, and the first customers could have access to the new lines as early as April 2010.

Applications for additional funding for competitive Recovery Act funding for broadband are currently pending with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Commerce. So far the USDA has awarded $363.7 million of its $2.5 billion in Recovery Act money for broadband programs, and the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded $200 million of its $4.9 billion so far.