DES MOINES – Governor Reynolds and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Tuesday, announced the latest recipients of the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grants Program.  Funding of more than $210M for new broadband infrastructure has been awarded to 160 applicants as part of the latest investment in expanding broadband across the state, announced in October 2021.

In our area  (Applicant name/Application Title/Award Amount):

• Casey Mutual Telephone Company was awarded over $5.9-million for fiber projects in Fontanelle, Bayard and Audubon.
• Coon Rapids Municipal Utilities was awarded $584,239 for their Broadband Grant Application.
• Coon Valley Cooperative Telephone Assoc., Inc., received a $2.729-million grant for the rural Stuart area.
• Cumberland Telephone Company received over $2.445-million for the “Cumberland NOFA7” project.
• Manning Municipal Utilities received a grant amounting to over $144,059 for the rural Gray area.
• METC (Marne Elk Horn Tele. Company) received a total of $634,867 for the projects in Exira and rural Audubon, as well as expansion in the Avoca area.
• Midwest Data Center received a $299,727 grant for the Fremont County Fiber Project.
• and Panora Communications Cooperative received more than $5.58-million for four Raccon River Build projects.

(Complete Award announcements can be found online here.)

Projects awarded under this grant opportunity will bring more than $526 million of new broadband infrastructure investment to Iowa, serving over 39,000 homes, schools, and businesses. To date, the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program has awarded grant funding that will result in over $880 million in new broadband investment, reaching approximately 115,000 homes, schools, and businesses upon the completion of grant-funded projects.

The OCIO will expedite an additional federally-funded grant opportunity in the first half of 2022 to continue expanding access to broadband in unserved and rural areas across Iowa which have not been built out in the previous grant opportunities.