September 2020

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $1.7 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in southwestern South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Golden West Telecommunications Cooperative, Inc. will use a $1.7 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network to connect 218 people, five businesses, 65 farms, and one essential community facility to high-speed broadband internet in Fall River and Custer counties in South Dakota and Niobrara and Weston counties in Wyoming.

The nation’s largest publicly held carriers had until Sept 28 to advise the Federal Communications Commission if they elect to receive a seventh year of support in the Connect America Fund (CAF) program, and at least some of them have opted to do so. AT&T, Frontier, and CenturyLink sent letters to the FCC electing to accept the seventh year of CAF support.