USDA broadband awards will help keep Texas competitive 

AUSTIN – Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples is pleased to congratulate Texas recipients of U.S. Department of Agriculture funding that will help bring much-needed high-speed Internet service to rural areas of the Lone Star State.  

“I am pleased Texas rural communities have begun to see benefits from the federal broadband funding,” Commissioner Staples said. “High-speed Internet access is critical to modern business, economic development, health care and education. I hope the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will follow USDA’s efforts to make similar awards to benefit Texans.” 

Of the approximately $1 billion in applications submitted on behalf of Texas broadband projects to NTIA, only one project to date has been funded by NTIA. 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act appropriated $7.2 billion and directed USDA's Rural Utilities Service and the Department of Commerce's NTIA to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities across the U.S.; increase jobs; spur investments in technology and infrastructure; and provide long-term economic benefits.  

Texas projects receiving USDA funding are:

PRIDE Network, Inc.: The Texas South Plains Project; $22,720,551 loan and $21,829,549 grant. The funding will provide a FTTP telecommunications infrastructure, with a WiMAX service-extension overlay, that will bring advanced broadband services to rural communities of the Texas South Plains region.

PRIDE Network, Inc.: The Burkburnett and Iowa Park Project; $12,811,071 loan and $6,309,931 grant. The funding will provide a FTTP telecommunications infrastructure, with a WiMAX service-extension overlay, that will bring advanced broadband services to the rural communities of Burkburnett and Iowa Park (less than five percent of this network will serve an area in Oklahoma).

XIT Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.: The FTTP and Very High Speed DSL2 (VDSL2) Combination Application Project; $3,065,440 grant and $3,190,560 private investment. The funding will provide a FTTP and Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN) advanced DSL technology within two separate service areas in and around the communities of Dalhart and Stratford.

Southern Texas Broadband Infrastructure Development and Adoption Project: $40,093,153 loan and $38,520,868 grant. The funding will develop a broadband infrastructure in 11 unserved and underserved rural communities of the South Texas Plains.

Texas project receiving NTIA funding is: 

Level 3 EON, Inc.: The Expanding Broadband Access Across Texas project received $4,677,788 to build 17 new access points on Level 3’s existing broadband network to enable last mile providers to offer affordable high-speed services to underserved areas. These points of interconnection enable last mile providers to transport data to the Internet backbone and provide affordable service to anchor institutions, homes and businesses. The project could enhance broadband capabilities for as many as 400,000 households, 21,000 businesses and 214 community anchor institutions, including schools, government agencies and health care providers.

Last summer, Gov. Rick Perry designated TDA, in consultation with the Public Utility Commission and the Texas Public Safety Commission, as the lead agency in coordinating broadband expansion activities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As such, the department is responsible for consulting with NTIA and USDA to provide guidance on state priorities regarding the delivery of broadband services, as well as recommendations about which applications affecting Texas should be funded.