The Kansas Office of Broadband Development has been awarded nearly $1 million from the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service through its new Broadband Technical Assistance Grant program. The $997,000 grant will fund pre-engineering design studies in six rural Kansas counties to help reduce costs and identify avoidable barriers as broadband is deployed there. The grant will produce plans to address broadband deployment hurdles in six selected counties: Gove, Kearny, Kiowa, Limm, Rawlins and Wilson. These counties, situated far from urban centers, face significant challenges in achieving reliable and affordable broadband services.
Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce, David Toland says that the plan aligns with the states broader vision for economic development. He added that the grant will assist with addressing some of the concerns providers face in bringing high-speed internet to sparsely populated areas of the state and high-speed internet and reliable infrastructure will make it possible for rural Kansans to continue to live and work in the communities they love.
