Rural broadband expansion continues in Kansas.
Gov. Kelly’s office announced this week that an additional $23.1 million will be provided to six service providers that will bring high-speed broadband service to nearly 4,200 homes, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and other institutions in unserved and rural areas of the state.
This is the second of three rounds of awards from the Kansas Capital Project Funds (CPF) Grant Program. The program is the result of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s approval of Kansas’ Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) broadband infrastructure plan.
The federal CPF program is a $10 billion initiative available to states, territories, and tribal governments under the American Rescue Plan Act to fund capital projects. Kansas was one of the first eight states in the country approved for funding under this program and was allocated $83.5 million. The CPF program resulted in 141 applications from providers requesting $693 million in funding support to build out broadband infrastructure across Kansas.
Once matching funds from the service providers are included, the total broadband investment in Phase 2 surpasses $30 million.
Grant awardees and communities that will benefit from the second phase of the Kansas CPF Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program include:
- IdeaTek (Finney, Haskell, Scott, Seward counties) – $7,943,385 to connect 1,121 premises
- KwiKom (Franklin, Lyon, Osage counties) – $1,810,941 to connect 1,333 premises
- Mokan Dial (Franklin County) – $6,948,173 to connect 663 premises
- PGB Fiber, LLC (Finney County) – $1,811,463 to connect 137 premises
- S&T Communications (Wallace County) – $997,844 to connect 118 premises
- WTC (Geary, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee counties) – $3,599,749 to connect 814 premises
