Additional round of broadband funding announced

Governor Kristi Noem has announced new broadband grants to help bring high-speed internet to some underserved locations in the state.  More than 25-million dollars in grants were awarded to sixteen projects from ten different applicants statewide.  These projects will leverage private matching dollars, for a total investment of more than 46-and-a-half million dollars in broadband infrastructure statewide.  The grants are part of the governor’s ConnectSD Initiative.

In our area, a close to one-point-six-million dollar grant has been awarded to Valley Communications Incorporated (doing business as Valley FiberCom).  This is for portions of rural Kingsbury, Brookings, and Moody counties.

When this round of grant work is complete, Governor Noem’s ConnectSD Initiative will have connected a total of more than 26-thousand locations with high-speed internet. Construction is expected to be completed in 2024.

New coverage areas of soon to be connected locations as well as past ConnectSD projects can be viewed on the South Dakota Broadband map located at: https://sdbit.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ccd16c24bf804c1fa67d50373d100464

May 2, 2022