The state of Tennessee awarded $97.2 million for middle mile and last mile broadband deployments today. Awardees include Charter and Brightspeed, along with 13 other entities, including local telecom providers, electric companies and others.
Charter won four last mile grants totaling approximately $11.7 million and five middle mile grants totaling approximately $988,000.
Brightspeed won a single last mile grant for over $6.8 million.
Only two companies other than Charter and Brightspeed won last mile awards. Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative won three grants totaling over $3.5 million, and ETC Communications won a single grant for over $2 million.
Last mile awards totaled about $24 million.
Middle Mile Awards
In addition to Charter, 11 other companies won middle mile awards.
The biggest middle mile awardees were Newport Utilities, which won over $15.2 million, and Ben Lomand Communications, which won $14.7 million.
The middle mile awards totaled about $73.2 million.
The complete list of Tennessee broadband infrastructure awardees includes:
- Aeneas Communications (middle mile)
- Ben Lomand Communications (middle mile)
- Board of Public Utilities of the City of Fayetteville (middle mile)
- BrightRidge (middle mile)
- Brightspeed (last mile)
- Charter (last mile and middle mile)
- Dickson Electric Department (middle mile)
- ETC Communications (last mile)
- Gibson Connect (middle mile)
- Loretto Telephone Company (middle mile)
- Newport Utilities (middle mile)
- Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative (last mile)
- Twin Lakes Communications (middle mile)
- United Communications (middle mile)
- West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative (middle mile)
According to the state, the awards will make broadband available to 58,200 Tennesseans across 23,000 locations in 37 counties.
Digital Opportunity Awards
Also today, Tennessee awarded $65.5 million for digital opportunity programs.
This includes:
- $27.9 million for Digital Skills, Employment and Workforce Development
- $26.5 million for Connected Community Facilities
- $6 million for Broadband Ready Communities
- $4.9 million for the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Broadband Workforce program
Grantees across all programs will invest approximately $48 million toward project costs and must complete projects by the end of 2026.
Additional information about all the awards made today can be found here.
Additional information about Tennessee broadband, including links to state funding resources and state-specific Telecompetitor coverage, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
