Illinois and Minnesota are moving forward on expansions to their in-state broadband networks. Frontier Communications recently expanded its service offerings to several Illinois communities including eight cities in deep southern Illinois. Additionally, Paul Bunyan Communications was awarded a $17 million dollar loan from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand its services throughout Minnesota.
Frontier says it has been working “very hard,” to add new cities and towns to its service area in Illinois. The Company also plans to provide additional access to its commercial grade high speed broadband service, Metro E. Metro E is advertised to reach 100 megabytes per second for upload and download. Frontier claims the speeds are higher if the customer has fiber instead of copper wire delivery.
Frontier has invested $50 million in this service expansion so far.
Paul Bunyan Communications which operates in Minnesota, has secured a $17 million loan through the USDA’s Rural Utility Service broadband loan program. This loan will expand services to nearly 4,000 homes and businesses in the Park Rapids area of Minnesota. Under the terms of the loan the expansion project must be completed within three years.
The company expects to be able to offer service to residents in the Park Rapids and Park Rapids metro area by 2013.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.