CLEVELAND – The White County Commissioners have approved two grant applications that could significantly improve the broadband service in the county.
During their meeting Tuesday the board approved working with both Windstream and Trailwave in seeking the grant funding. The county would only be a conduit for the two grants, if approved, no county funds would be used.
The grant that Windstream is seeking would come from the federal government through the Telecommunications and Information Administration. That grant calls for 4,680 households to be served. The total amount of the project would be $10,023.336 with Windstream providing 2.3 million dollars of that.
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The other grant that Trailwave is seeking is from the state, as part of the America Recovery Plan. That project calls for 5,120 households to be served with a total cost of 15 million dollars with Trailwave providing 3 million dollars in funding.
Glenn Purcell, Vice President, Technology & Services for Habersham Electric/Trailwave says this would provide a big boost to their service plan.
“We’ve been expanding in the White County area over the past three years, probably close to a 15 million dollar investment. These additional funds will help us expand faster and bring the quality of service that the existing Trailwave customers know to a whole new group of new customers.”
Purcell says they expect to receive word sometime in mid-October if they have been awarded the funding.
The Habersham County Development Authority is partnering with Trailwave and NGN Fiber on an application to expand broadband service in Habersham, Rabun, and Banks counties.
