MONROE - High-speed broadband connection will be accessible by next summer for about 850 unserved customers in the Monroe area.
TDS Telecommunications Corp. broke ground on the broadband expansion project last week. The project, which will lay down 44 miles of underground fiber optics cable, impacts consumers in areas surrounding South Wayne, Browntown, Woodford, and south of Monroe.
The project is being billed as a boon to area businesses.
"It really is an essential element to economic development," said Anna Schramke, executive director of the Green County Development Corporation. "More and more, (business) prospects are asking about broadband capabilities. They want fiber to the world. We don't even have a backbone infrastructure."
Schramke said Internet access is similar to the Interstate Highway System begun in the late 1950s. "Those on the interstates seemed to grow very quickly," she said.
The larger the business, the more broadband accessibility matters, and as businesses attract higher technically skilled labors, employees want broadband in their homes as well, she added.
Among those directly impacted by the project are 786 residents, 50 businesses and eight institutions, and 76 jobs are being created, said Carolyn Wetuski, area director of USDA Rural Development. The project should have a "ripple effect" on economic opportunities for the community to grow, sustain and be competitive, she added.
The new orange cable, being buried about 3 feet deep "in every direction out of Monroe" will carry 96 fiber optics, six times more than the current cable used in other parts of the service area, according to Ron Linder, superintendent of InterCon Energy Services, Waunakee, the construction firm on the project. Laying the cable is expected to take two months, after which TDS will complete "inside" work.
Speed will range from 1.5 to 25 Mbps (million bits per second). Linder expects the additional fiber will also alleviate some of the traffic on the current cable, helping to speed up those customers' service.
The project is funded, in part, by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
About 93 percent of TDS customers have Internet access, but the last 7 percent is tough to reach, because rural geographies "push the limits of technology" and make developing a solid business plan to deploy broadband almost impossible, said Al Ripp, local market manager for TDS.
"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is giving us a window of opportunity to make broadband available to many more residents in the area," he added.
TDS received about $2.8 million in grants for the project to offset the $3.7 million total.
TDS received a total of 44 grants through the ARRA, totaling $135 million for projects located across the U.S. TDS will invest $31 million of its own money in the expansions.
TDS Telecommunications Corp. broke ground on the broadband expansion project last week. The project, which will lay down 44 miles of underground fiber optics cable, impacts consumers in areas surrounding South Wayne, Browntown, Woodford, and south of Monroe.
The project is being billed as a boon to area businesses.
"It really is an essential element to economic development," said Anna Schramke, executive director of the Green County Development Corporation. "More and more, (business) prospects are asking about broadband capabilities. They want fiber to the world. We don't even have a backbone infrastructure."
Schramke said Internet access is similar to the Interstate Highway System begun in the late 1950s. "Those on the interstates seemed to grow very quickly," she said.
The larger the business, the more broadband accessibility matters, and as businesses attract higher technically skilled labors, employees want broadband in their homes as well, she added.
Among those directly impacted by the project are 786 residents, 50 businesses and eight institutions, and 76 jobs are being created, said Carolyn Wetuski, area director of USDA Rural Development. The project should have a "ripple effect" on economic opportunities for the community to grow, sustain and be competitive, she added.
The new orange cable, being buried about 3 feet deep "in every direction out of Monroe" will carry 96 fiber optics, six times more than the current cable used in other parts of the service area, according to Ron Linder, superintendent of InterCon Energy Services, Waunakee, the construction firm on the project. Laying the cable is expected to take two months, after which TDS will complete "inside" work.
Speed will range from 1.5 to 25 Mbps (million bits per second). Linder expects the additional fiber will also alleviate some of the traffic on the current cable, helping to speed up those customers' service.
The project is funded, in part, by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
About 93 percent of TDS customers have Internet access, but the last 7 percent is tough to reach, because rural geographies "push the limits of technology" and make developing a solid business plan to deploy broadband almost impossible, said Al Ripp, local market manager for TDS.
"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is giving us a window of opportunity to make broadband available to many more residents in the area," he added.
TDS received about $2.8 million in grants for the project to offset the $3.7 million total.
TDS received a total of 44 grants through the ARRA, totaling $135 million for projects located across the U.S. TDS will invest $31 million of its own money in the expansions.