High-speed internet to expand in Dallas and six other Black Belt counties thanks to $50M USDA award

High-speed internet will be expanded in Dallas and six other Black Belt counties thanks to almost $50 million in loans and grants recently announced by the US Department of Agriculture.

Pine Belt Telephone Company Inc. will receive the funds to connect 15,989 people, 608 businesses, 52 educational facilities and 407 farms in Perry, Dallas, Wilcox, Marengo, Choctaw and Clarke counties to high-speed internet.

Pine Belt will make high-speed internet affordable by participating in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program. This project will serve socially vulnerable communities in Dallas, Choctaw and Clarke counties.

Pine Belt President John Nettles said that it will take about a year to complete the paperwork and the environmental review process before crews can start laying cable.

“The total construction process will take five to six years,” Nettles said. “But when we are done, those of us in this part of the state will be on the leading edge of broadband connectivity instead of lagging behind the technology curve as it seems is so often the case.”

Nettles said half of the $49.7 million awarded to Pine Belt by FDA is a grant, and the other half is a low-interest loan.

The Alabama funds are part of more than $500 million in loans and grants for 20 states announced last week by USDA. The funding is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “commitment to investing in rural infrastructure and providing reliable, affordable, high-speed internet for all,” according to a USDA news release.

USDA is making the investments through the third funding round of the ReConnnect Program, which furnishes loans and grants to construct, improve or acquire equipment to provide broadband service in rural counties that have no or slow internet connections.

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USDA will make additional investments for rural high-speed internet in the coming months, including funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides $65 billion to expand affordable, high-speed internet to all communities across the U.S., according to the release.

“Pine Belt Communications has been serving parts of central Alabama since 1958, and we’ve expanded in the last couple of years into underserved parts around our core footprint of Arlington, Dixons Mills, Sweet Water and Nanafalia,” Pine Belt President John Nettles said. “This is the second allocation of expansion capital that we have secured through the USDA ReConnect program, all of which will be used to construct 100% fiber to the customer premises networks.”

Pine Belt received its first ReConnect award in 2021, and Nettles said crews are laying fiberoptic cable in those areas. Most of the fiberoptic cable will be laid in the right of way beside public roads, according to Nettles. Individual customers will pay to connect to the main lines if they want internet service.

“I have ample evidence for demand for the service, based on the calls I get asking, ‘Can’t you come bring fiber to me,’” Nettles said. “We’re coming.”

“When you couple these investment plans with the complete rebuild of our wireless network that will be happening in parallel under the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Networks Program, hopefully everyone will recognize our deep commitment to this part of Alabama,” Nettles said.

“President Biden’s commitment to high-speed internet in rural communities is foundational to ensuring that the nation’s economy continues to expand from the bottom up and the middle out,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “High-speed internet will improve the rural economy. It will help rural businesses grow and get access to new markets. It will help rural residents get access to more and better health care and educational opportunities.”

To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, an applicant must serve an area where high-speed internet service speeds are lower than 100 megabits per second (Mbps) (download) and 20 Mbps (upload). The applicant must also commit to building facilities capable of providing high-speed internet service at speeds of 100 Mbps (download and upload) to every location in its service area.