IPTV is a key component of rural Minnesota telco's broadband stimulus projects

Halstad Telephone Company has the distinction of having won three broadband stimulus awards after applying for a total of four -- an impressive feat for a 14-person company in a program in which the vast majority of applications were rejected.

The projects are bringing fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the neighborhood to rural areas of northwestern Minnesota, including areas where HTC operates as an incumbent or competitive local exchange carrier. “Two of the projects are done and we’re still hooking up new customers,” HTC chief executive Tom Maroney told Connected Planet this week. The third project recently got restarted after delays resulting from an industry-wide fiber shortage. “We plan on being done this fall,” Maroney said. The project areas previously had either no broadband or had DSL service at relatively low 256 kb/s or 512 kb/s speeds. Maroney said he believes that reality was a big factor in the Rural Utilities Service’s decision to award a total of $11 million to HTC on a 50/50 grant/loan basis. The total value of the awards was $11 million. Maroney said the company would not have been able to make a business case to support the deployment without the grant money. “The grant really helped in the more rural parts of the project areas,” Maroney said. HTC might have been able to cost-justify a deployment in population centers only. But as a coop, Maroney said, “We don't look at it that way.”