USDA Awards $17 Million ReConnect Grant to Warm Springs Telecom for Broadband Expansion in Rural Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office in Oregon will invest $17 million through a ReConnect Program grant to Warm Springs Telecom to expand high-speed internet access on the Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon State Director Jim Carmack announced on November 9.
Warm Springs Telecommunications Company is owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The investment will deploy mostly aerial fiber to bring high-speed internet to more than 150 households on the reservation, and the company will also build a new operations facility with space for security, storage and employees. USDA said the project, in rural and hard-to-serve parts of Jefferson and Wasco counties, will expand economic opportunity and improve public safety response, education and telemedicine access.
Carmack said high-speed internet is a gateway to opportunity and that the announcement brings those opportunities closer to hundreds of families on the reservation. Warm Springs Telecom CEO and General Manager Tim York said the award goes beyond extending fiber broadband to one of the most remote communities, allowing the company to establish a modern telecommunications facility as a foundation for generations of technological growth.
The company received technical assistance from Rural Prosperity Partners, headquartered in Oregon, which has helped rural Oregon internet providers secure more than $44 million with USDA support. USDA Rural Development's ReConnect Program offers loans, grants and loan-grant combinations to deploy high-speed internet in rural areas that lack sufficient broadband access.
(Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国乡村农田与农舍之间的一座通信塔航拍（资料图）。Wikideas1 摄，CC0 公共领域授权，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Aerial view of a communications tower amid farmland and farmsteads in the rural United States (file photo). Photo by Wikideas1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
