Tag Archives: broadband

40th District Representative Michael Hale will hold the third of four town hall meetings Tuesday night, as he visits with constituents in Dekalb County. Hale said the tour gives him the chance to update residents about the work going on in Nashville. He said the most common question so far has been the financial stability of the state. The tour ... Read More »

Local and state leaders broke ground Monday on a Putnam County broadband expansion project that would benefit some 2,300 homes. Twin Lakes officials gathered at Poplar Grove Baptist Church where the state presented a check worth more than $10 million for the project. The company was named a finalist for state funding earlier this year. CEO and General Manager Jonathan ... Read More »

Putnam County’s broadband expansion plan brings a huge opportunity for Monterey students. Monterey High School Assistant Principal Ben Novak said with such a reliance on the internet, it is a necessity to make sure students have a good connection. When the pandemic first began, Novak said many students had to use hot spots and even the Monterey Public Library’s wi-fi ... Read More »

The state has awarded Cumberland County internet providers $26.5 million dollars that would connect 8,800 addresses to broadband. Mayor Allen Foster said Ben Lomand received the majority of funding and will focus on all areas of the county. “Literally portions all over the county including sections of Crossville have bad broadband,” Foster said. “When I first got involved in this ... Read More »

Twin Lakes General Manager and CEO Jonathan West said the company is ready to start work on a some 30-month project to expand internet access to underserved and unserved Putnam County homes. The state awarded Putnam County over $10 million to install fiber internet to some 2,400 addresses. West said Twin Lakes just needs the contract of work from the ... Read More »

Twin Lakes is hoping to earn grant funding from Tennessee’s Emergency Broadband fund. CEO Jonathan West said that they’re applying for a portion of the $400 million pot to expand broadband to coverage to homes in Putnam County. “There are so many things that you can only do online,” West said. “And when you don’t have access to quality broadband ... Read More »

Putnam County wants to send out requests for proposals next month preparing for future broadband projects from ARP funding. Mayor Randy Porter said the county wants to correlate with the state, which will soon be accepting grant applications from providers. “We’re very hopeful that once this project is done, 100 percent of Putnam County will have access to at least ... Read More »

Cumberland County will consider allocating some $3 million of its ARP funds for broadband expansion. Mayor Allen Foster said that the budget committee approved a resolution for the money in hopes of addressing a major need in the community. “Broadband in Cumberland County, we have a real serious problem here,” Foster said. “I’ve met with everybody on the local, state, ... Read More »

Federal and state COVID funding has created the perfect opportunity to explore fiber internet connections for most Putnam County homes. Mayor Randy Porter said the state has $400 million allocated for local broadband grants. The county has some $15 million coming from the American Rescue Plan. “They’re going to be looking at projects specifically where a county would put some ... Read More »

State Representative John Mark Windle said that more could have been done to help the Upper Cumberland in the 2021 state budget. Windle said that broadband infrastructure was cut from $200 million to $100 million by Governor Lee. Windle said rural Tennessee is seeing an influx of new residents but they need the bandwidth for today’s jobs. “We need to ... Read More »