Kinetic by Windstream has announced two projects in a public/private partnership with Greene County, Pennsylvania funded, in part, through the CARES Act. The Windstream CARES projects have brought gigabit speeds to 7,300 homes in six communities.
The consumers – most of whom had speeds slower than the current FCC broadband download definition of 25 Mbps – are in Bobtown, Carmichaels, Greensboro, Jefferson, Mount Morris and Waynesburg, all of which already are served by Kinetic.
Additional upgrades are underway to increase speeds to more than 1,000 customers in Brave, Graysville, Rogersville and Waynesburg. These communities also are served by Windstream.
The project received $1,284,549 in funding from the CARES Act, which was enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those funds were awarded to Windstream through Greene County Commissions. Additional funding came from Windstream.
In response to emailed questions, a spokesperson for Windstream told Telecompetitor that this is the only Pennsylvania project involving CARES Act funding that the company is involved in. The company does have ongoing projects in Arkansas, Georgia and Nebraska that have received CARES Act funding.
“Public-private partnerships allow for creative solutions to bring faster internet speeds that are critical to families in Pennsylvania,” Susan Schraibman, Kinetic’s president of state operations, said in a press release about the Windstream CARES Act funding. “We are committed to keeping communities we serve connected to what’s important.”
Windstream brings a variety of services to residences and businesses in primarily rural areas of 18 states.
CARES Act funding has impacted broadband deployment in a variety of states. Last year, the Pew Charitable Trusts published a report outlining how states have leveraged some of the $150 billion the program allocated for the states towards broadband projects.
