Great Plains Communications is using funding from the CARES Act to bring FTTH and connectivity to seven areas of Nebraska.
The project will provide services to 4,800 homes and businesses in Callaway, Creighton, Deshler, Gordon, North Bend, Red Cloud and Sutherland. Business and residential customers will have access to gigabit broadband, GPC iTV video streaming service and GPC Whole Home WiFi powered by Plume Home Pass. Businesses will have access to speeds as fast as 10 Gbps, streaming, voice services and GPC Managed Business WiFi.
The Nebraska Department of Economic Development is distributing $1.08 billion from the CARES Act to the state, according to a press release, which did not reference the cost of the Great Plains project.
Great Plains Communications says that most areas are nearing completion and will be done by the end of the summer. The company, which calls itself one of the largest privately owned telecommunications providers in the Midwest, is over a century old. It now has a 13,500 mile regional fiber network.
“We believe that high quality, fiber-driven broadband services are a valuable and vital resource for communities to flourish,” Great Plains Communications CEO Todd Foje said in a press release. “Our company is honored to partner with state and government agencies to help deploy fiber into these rural communities to allow for more effective distance learning, telehealth and the latest technology and reliable connectivity to attract new businesses and residents to grow these communities.”
Last June, Great Plains Communications said that it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire Enhanced Telecommunications Corp., a company that at the time had more than 14,000 business and residential customers in rural southeastern Indiana. It was the most recent step in Great Plains Communications’ aggressive growth strategy.
