Funding for PA Broadband Projects

From the inbox:

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today announced 10 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments to help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth, create jobs and improve education and health care cross the country. The grants will increase broadband access and adoption in California , Florida , Indiana , Louisiana , New York , Pennsylvania , West Virginia , and Wisconsin . The ten grants, totaling $357 million, will bring high-speed Internet access to millions of households and businesses, and link up thousands of schools, hospitals, libraries and public safety offices to the information superhighway.

Pennsylvania projects on the list:

Pennsylvania: Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research: $99.7 million broadband infrastructure grant with an additional $29 million applicant-provided match to create the Pennsylvania Research and Education Network (PennREN). With nearly 1,700 miles of fiber, the network expects to expand broadband Internet access and directly connect 60 critical community anchor institutions in 39 counties across south and central Pennsylvania . PennREN will enhance healthcare delivery, research, education, workforce development, and public safety by delivering broadband speeds of 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

Pennsylvania: Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: $28.8 million broadband infrastructure grant with an additional $7.2 million applicant-provided match to increase broadband Internet connection speeds for community anchor institutions and underserved areas isolated by difficult, mountainous terrain in northern Pennsylvania. The project will leverage Pennsylvania’s existing microwave public safety communications network by adding a parallel 150 Mbps Ethernet backbone stretching 649 miles across the state, as well as 612 miles of fixed wireless links.

More info at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/projects.html