High-speed internet grants of more than $300 million awarded by Oklahoma officials
More than $374 million in grants were approved this week by officials with the Oklahoma Broadband Office.
The grants, ranging in amounts from $7,000 to Dobson Fiber in Kiowa, to more than $22 million to the Pine Telephone Company in Choctaw, are earmarked for broadband infrastructure projects in 57 counties, the agency's executive director, Mike Sanders, said Friday. Sanders said the grants will put about 55,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses a step closer to receiving high-speed internet service.
The Broadband Office, a new state agency less than a year old, will eventually oversee the distribution of more than $1.3 billion in federal funds. Thursday's awards were the first part of that amount. The funds, Sanders said, are part of the federal ARPA State and Local Recovery Funds. Sanders said those awards will be coupled with about $90 million in matching funds from 31 internet service providers.
"When I took this job 10 months ago, I literally walked into the Oklahoma Broadband Office that didn't have high-speed internet," Sanders said. He and the small staff were tasked to "build a state agency with toothpicks and superglue and administer $1.3 billion in federal dollars," he said. "It's been a Herculean task."
Sanders praised his staff for their work to get the first round of grant funds awarded. "They've done amazing work," he said. The next step in the process is the contract approval, which should be completed next week.
Once the grants are finalized and the contracts signed, Sanders said teams from his agency will monitor the process of the grant recipient. "We will have teams out, technical experts, out in the field monitoring the process of each grant," he said.
When will the new broadband projects in Oklahoma be finished?
Sanders said he expected the first wave of construction to begin soon. "People are gonna see spools of fiber along the highway and country roads," he said. "There will be a lot of construction."
He said the projects have to be finished by October 2026.
In addition to small, local internet and telephone companies that received grants, Sanders said the agency also awarded grants to five rural electric cooperatives in Oklahoma with fiber subsidiaries. Those co-ops included Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative in Seminole; Central Rural Electric Cooperative’s Centranet in Stillwater; East Central Electric Cooperative’s ecoLINK in Okmulgee; Indian Electric Cooperative and Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative’s Northeast Rural Services Inc. in Vinita.
“The cooperative business model is uniquely suited to provide this essential service,” Hunter Robinson, chair of the Cooperative Broadband Coalition and CEO of Central Rural Electric Cooperative, said in a media statement. “We stand on a legacy of bringing service to those who never had it, much like we did 80 years ago, bringing electricity to rural areas that were in the dark.”
State lawmakers said they were pleased by the progress made by the agency. “Expanding broadband access across the state is essential to help Oklahomans," Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat said. "I am glad the board took the necessary action to bring these projects to fruition."
Echoing Treat, House Speaker Charles McCall said the awards were "the first of multiple phases that will provide necessary funding to increase affordable, high-speed broadband accessibility across Oklahoma."
Sanders said his goal was to have high-speed internet access available statewide. "This is a game changer," Sanders said. "Education, health care. If Covid taught us anything it's that you can run a billion dollar company from your kitchen table — but you gotta be connected."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: $374 million in grants to expand broadband access in Oklahoma
