For Immediate Release:
March 4, 2010
Athens, Ohio Based Intelliwave Receives 2.28 Million Dollar Federal Broadband Stimulus Award to Bring Desperately Needed Broadband Service to 11,232 Households & Businesses in Athens, Pickaway and Fairfield Counties.
Athens, Ohio: Thanks to a federal broadband stimulus award announced today, 11,232 households currently unserved or underserved by broadband, in Athens, Pickaway and Fairfield counties, will soon have broadband Internet available. Intelliwave, an Athens Ohio wireless Internet service provider (WISP) received word today from the USDA that they are the recipients of an award totaling $1,116,997 in grant funds and$1,162,599 in loan funds. These funds will be used over the next 36 months to build cutting edge wireless “last mile” Internet infrastructure to residents and businesses of the included counties.
According to Chris Cooper, managing partner of Intelliwave, “Today’s announcement is a victory for the people of Southeast Ohio. More than 11,000 households and businesses in the region will now have access to affordable broadband Internet service. This award represents true economic stimulus for the region. Not only will Intelliwave offer high quality technical job opportunities for residents here, we will also expand economic opportunities within the communities that will now have access to lower cost, higher speed Internet service.”
Based in Athens Ohio, Intelliwave provides broadband Internet service to households and businesses in Southeast Ohio who have limited access to high speed Internet choices found in urban areas. “Our seven year track record of bringing broadband to the underserved populations of rural Ohio was a key to our success in receiving this award. We have the experience, knowledge, staff and proven track record that were heavily rewarded in the review process. Our existing infrastructure and “boots on the ground” proved that our project is truly “shovel ready “remarked Chris Cooper.
For Immediate Release:
March 4, 2010
Athens, Ohio Based Intelliwave Receives 2.28 Million Dollar Federal Broadband Stimulus Award to Bring Desperately Needed Broadband Service to 11,232 Households & Businesses in Athens, Pickaway and Fairfield Counties.
Approximately 2200 applications were submitted nationwide for the opportunity to receive a part of the 7.2 billion dollars made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the purpose of bringing broadband to populations in the United States underserved by broadband. Chris Cooper described a grueling application process with only a short time window to prepare. “We competed nationally and regionally against much larger companies, and we won on the merit of our proposal. Our hats go off to the USDA for a quality process and to the other Ohio awardees. We look forward to working with the federal government to rapidly expand our cutting edge wireless broadband infrastructure to the underserved populations of Southeastern Ohio. ”
Elected officials from the Region note the importance of this broadband stimulus award. According to US Senator Sherrod Brown, “Broadband access is a matter of equal opportunity,” Brown said. “Expanding high-speed Internet access is critical to improving the economic competitiveness of Ohio’s rural and underserved urban areas. Today’s award is a great first step toward achieving our goal of total access.”
Tom Fritz, executive director of Connect Ohio weighs in as well. “Connect Ohio applauds the award of this funding that will help more than 11,000 unserved households in these three Ohio counties be able to take advantage of all the benefits that high-speed Internet provides,” said Tom Fritz, executive director of Connect Ohio, a nonprofit, technology-neutral, public-private partnership that works with telecommunications providers, business and community leaders, information technology companies, researchers, public agencies, libraries and universities in an effort to help extend affordable high-speed Internet service to every Ohio household. “This award illustrates the importance of the data collection and broadband mapping effort that Ohio has undertaken over the past two years as part of Governor Strickland’s Connect Ohio initiative.” Connect Ohio was established in December, 2007 by Governor Strickland to map broadband availability and work with local communities to expand access to high speed internet services across the State of Ohio.
Intelliwave would like to acknowledge encouragement and support from the following officials: Governor Ted Strickland’s office, through the work of Connect Ohio and its executive director Tom Fritz, Senator Sherrod Brown The Athens County Commissioners, the Pickaway County Commissioners, Nate Green, director of Pickaway Progress Partnership, and Ed Campbell, IT director for the City of Lancaster.
For more information, contact Chris Cooper at 740-591-6748, ccooper@intelliwave.com
www.intelliwave.com
For more information regarding the USDA broadband infrastructure program (BIP) please see the USDA press release dated March 4, 2010: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1O B?contentidonly=true&contentid=2010/03/0097.xml
