Windstream is receiving $2.2 million in funding from the Nebraska USF to expand access to Kinetic Internet in 13 of its state-based exchanges.
The Commission oversees the Nebraska Universal Service Fund (NUSF), which provides funding for a variety of ventures, including broadband deployment possible in rural areas that would not otherwise be economically feasible due to the limited customer base.
Windstream will combine NUSF support along with more than $590,000 of its own capital to develop 18 separate projects in rural areas within 13 of its local exchanges where broadband is non-existent or extremely limited.
The company plans to use a FTTN architecture to deliver download speeds of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds along with 1 Mbps upload speeds to all of the project locations. Additionally, as many as 80 percent of customers in the project areas should be able to receive 25 Mbps to 100 Mbps download speeds (3 Mbps to 10 Mbps uploads), depending on their distance from the fiber-fed hardware. Windstream said is expected to be completed by the middle of the year.
“Windstream is excited to partner with the Nebraska Public Service Commission to deliver high-speed broadband to more than 1,500 additional locations across the state,” said Brad Hedrick, president of Windstream operations in Nebraska, in a prepared statement. “We understand that faster internet speeds are critical to our customers throughout Nebraska, and we are continuously enhancing our network to meet that need.”
“I’m pleased to see the universal service fund doing what we’ve designed it to do, provide access to internet services in the unserved and underserved areas of our state,” said District 3 Commissioner Tim Schram, in a prepared statement. “Now Windstream customers in these 13 exchanges can look forward to receiving high-speed internet access.”
