In its second round of funding, the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant (ORBEG) program has authorized BroadbandOhio to award $94.5 million to Charter and Brightspeed to provide broadband access to more than 35,000 households in six projects across the state.
The Ohio broadband projects, which will span 23 counties, will provide at least 100 Mbps symmetrical speeds upon completion. Funding for the projects was created by American Rescue Plan Act.
The Charter award was technically made to Time Warner Cable Midwest, which no longer exists. Telecommunications companies sometimes use old names for their applications. Time Warner Cable was acquired by Charter eight years ago. Thus, the five Ohio broadband awards — which span 19 counties — are actually Charter projects.
In several cases, both Charter and Brightspeed got funding in the same counties.
The Charter awards for broadband in Ohio include:
- $19,635,616 to provide access to 7,275 households in Fulton and Henry counties.
- $17,471,275 to provide access to 6,645 households in Auglaize, Butler, Logan, Montgomery, and Preble counties.
- $17,269,871 to provide access to 6,053 households in Defiance and Williams counties.
- $15,287,761 to provide access to 5,289 households in Ashland, Erie, Geauga, Lorain, Lucas, and Wood counties.
- $13,476,757 to provide access to 5,036 households in Ashtabula, Columbiana, Portage, and Trumbull counties.
Brightspeed will provide symmetrical speeds as fast as 1 Gbps. It was awarded $11,358,720 to provide access to 5,053 households in Allen, Ashtabula, Columbiana, Knox, Mahoning, Shelby, and Trumbull counties.
In April, Peter Voderberg, chief for BroadbandOhio, told Telecompetitor that the state is “very competitive” and “aggressive” in its aim to make broadband available across Ohio. Evidence of that attitude, he said, is that the state received applications requesting $780 million when it made $77 million available for rural broadband deployment through the Capital Projects Fund.
More information about broadband in the Buckeye State is available on the Broadband Nation webpage.
