TDS® announces completion of two more ARRA broadband stimulus projects

TDS Telecom (TDS®) announces the completion of two more American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus-funded broadband Internet projects. The projects, in Mississippi and Tennessee, deliver access to high-speed Internet service to businesses and more than a combined 2,300 households. 

TDS is receiving funding for 44 projects, including these two, from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) as part of the ARRA.

TDS’ stimulus-funded project in Mississippi, which impacts an area around Leakesville, is now complete. TDS installed fiber optics cabling and 19 cabinets (which protect the advanced network electronics) in this area, which is part of its Southeast Mississippi Telephone Company. In early March, TDS announced a portion of the project was complete. Today, the entire project is finished and provides nearly 700 area residents with access to high-speed Internet service. TDS projected the cost at approximately $2.5 million. The RUS grant covered 75 percent of the cost and TDS invested the remaining 25 percent (about $625,000) to expand broadband service.

The stimulus-funded project in Tennessee is also now complete and impacts customers around Bruceton, Cornersville, Darden, Decaturville, and Waynesboro. TDS reported in early April that a portion of this project, in the Tennessee Telephone Company exchange, was complete. The project included installing more than 100 miles of fiber optics cabling and 22 cabinets in order to connect more than 1,600 area residents to high-speed Internet service. TDS projected the cost at more than $6.8 million. The company invested 25 percent (more than $1.7 million) and the RUS grant covered 75 percent.

Nationwide, more than 95 percent of TDS customers already have access to high-speed Internet service. TDS is intent on providing as many remaining customers with broadband connectivity as possible. According to TDS, federal stimulus funds are helping to close the gap and deliver Internet connectivity. With the help of ARRA funding, TDS has already expanded high-speed Internet service access to more than 31,500 households across the country.

For background information or to sign-up for services, call 888-225-5837 or visit www.tdstelecom.com/stimulus.

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For more information, or a high-resolution map, contact: Cindy Tomlinson, Associate Manager-Public Relations / TDS Telecom / 608-664-4471 / cindy.tomlinson@tdstelecom.com

TDS Telecom, the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the U.S., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. TDS Telecom provides 1.1 million connections to high-speed Internet, phone, and TV entertainment services to customers in more than a hundred rural, suburban, and metropolitan communities. TDS Telecom offers businesses the latest communications solutions, including: VoIP (managedIP Hosted) phone service, dedicated high-speed Internet and hosted-managed services. Visit tdstelecom.com or tdsbusiness.com.

TDS Telecom, headquartered in Madison, Wis., operates OneNeck® IT Solutions LLC and TDS Baja Broadband LLC. Combined, the company employs 3,100 people.

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS], a Fortune 1000™ company, provides wireless; cable and wireline broadband, TV and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately 5.8 million customers nationwide through its subsidiaries TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular®. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, Telephone and Data Systems employs 10,000 people. Visit teldta.com.