ReConnect Expanding, Tennessee First Location

During a recent trip to Tennessee, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announced increased efforts to connect rural Americans to broadband service.

"Our first award to the reconnect program which is broadband, high-speed, availability for citizens in rural areas," Perdue said.

The ReConnect Pilot Plan provides grants and loans to establish high-speed e-connectivity to rural areas with insufficient Internet service.  The Fort Year Electric Cooperative, via ReConnect grant, will deploy a fiber to home network capable of simultaneous transmission rates of 100 megabits or more per second.

"We really can't have a modern society without connection to the Internet today and what it means for tele-medicine, what it means for distance learning, what it means for e-commerce, what it means for precision agriculture. What is main stream quality of life. It's not a 'nice to have,' it's a 'have to have' type of issue today for many people."

The Secretary adds, additional ReConnect project investments are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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