Local Telecommunications Companies Win Broadband Public-Private Partnerships with Texas County

Public private broadband partnerships (PPPs) are in full swing. Polk County, Texas, has partnered with two small rural telecommunications companies–Eastex Telephone Cooperative and Livingston Communications (LivCom) — on broadband builds. Eastex will be making fiber broadband available to 1300 locations in the half of the county that previously could not get high-speed broadband. Eastex will be covering 60% of the cost of the $10 million project and the county will cover the other 40% using funding that it received through the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund created in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Polk County also awarded funding to LivCom, another local telco, to deploy almost 15 miles of fiber along State Highway 59, Highway 146, and Highway 190 through high-traffic and developing areas.