South Dakota one of 17 states to benefit from broadband stimulus, connectivity for rural areas

SIOUX FALLS – Gov. Mike Rounds was notified that SDN Communications will receive a $20 million grant in the first round of federal broadband stimulus money that is meant to connect some of the state’s most rural hospitals, schools, libraries and public safety agencies.

Vice President Joe Biden made the announcement in rural Georgia this morning. South Dakota is one of 17 states benefitting from the announcement.

“The beneficiaries of this grant to SDN Communications are South Dakota communities that have a critical need to connect to a larger Internet backbone,” Bureau of Information & Telecommunications Commissioner Otto Doll said. “This will give some of our communities an economic development tool that will help them sustain and grow in this new economy.”

The fiber infrastructure will be built by Sioux Falls based SDN Communications and its owner/member companies – the 18 independent telephone companies of South Dakota. Those companies are cooperative, municipal, family and tribal-owned companies that serve 80 percent of the state’s geography in largely sparsely populated areas. SDN and its owners/members will match the federal grant with a $5 million investment.

The competitive grant will allow so-called anchor institutions – hospitals, libraries, schools, public safety agencies and government offices – along with the business community to receive high-speed connections. It will enable 10 Megabit per second service to 219 existing anchor institution customers in rural and underserved areas of the state and connect 305 new anchor institutions. SDN and its owner/members will have three years to complete a total of 359 miles of fiber optic network.

“This is all about reaching more communities with more reliable and higher speed connections,” Doll said. The SDN project is one of 18 projects across the country announced today.

These additional broadband connections will help bridge the digital gap and boost economic development. Rural communities will be better equipped to attract high-tech jobs and talent in the long term, helping them compete on a world-wide scale.

“In healthcare, for example, South Dakotans in rural clinics and hospitals will have more access to telemedicine connections allowing remote tests, diagnostic services, and more medical expertise closer to home,” said the Commissioner. “And school children in rural areas will benefit from more distance-learning programs.”

SDN and its member companies have a proven record of providing access to rural communities and anchor institutions throughout the state. “Due to the costs involved with expanding the network to the most underserved areas of South Dakota, many of these anchor institutions would not have received additional middle mile or last mile access for several years,” says SDN Communications Chief Executive Officer Mark Shlanta. “The stimulus grant allows us to move up our timeline to provide this needed access.” (Middle mile is the term used when connections are built to an entire community to grant additional access to the Internet backbone. Last mile is used when connecting end users directly to that backbone.)

The National Telecommunications Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) plans to distribute a total of $4.7 billion in stimulus funding. They received almost 2,200 bidders for proposed projects worth more than $28 billion plus an additional $10.5 billion in matching funds for a total of $38 billion.

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