TDS elects to receive FCC funding to improve rural broadband

[Jeff]

[Jeff]

This was posted on the TDS Facebook page, so if anyone has any contacts or some time to put in a word, it might be a very good time to get them thinking of Beaver Island:

Since we just received approval yesterday, final engineering and network deployment arrangements are still being finalized on this multi-year project. As we know more we will share detailed maps and general time frames for project start dates in local communities

[Avandyke]

Done. I just requested that they keep Beaver Island in mind. The Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/TDSTelecommunications/

[Jeff]

Thanks very much.

Update released today -- looks very promising -- hope Beaver Island is included. https://tdstelecom.com/networkupgrades.html

[Walleyeguy]

I just went to the TDS page that's linked & put in my address on East Side Dr. The TDS message was "The FCC has determined there is one or more additional providers offering broadband service in your area; therefore this program is not available at this address."

Try it your self. It looks like TDS is going to NOT use the funding for Beaver Island internet upgrades, at least at my home!! Very, very disappointing!

[Ted Hughes]

Today I visited the TDS website and entered our cottage address on Gull Island Road, located on Donegal Bay in the northwest corner of Beaver Island. The TDS response was that the Federal Communications Commission has determined that the broadband network upgrade "is not available at your address".

[Jeff]

Hmmm...
I entered a few addresses including my own and a few to test with and it returned "Your address qualifies for government broadband funding. We will communicate with you when the timeline of this buildout program is determined." I don't know but I suspect the color block around the town area isn't included because that dslam was already upgraded to 25/5 available I think with a bit more customer density and it being too expensive for TDS to do too much at once without some kind of funding to make it feasible.

For the rest of the Island,

In fact nearly 160,000 homes and 25 states will benefit from a network expansion, which is made possible by funding from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Alternative Connect America Cost Model also known as the Connect America Fund (CAF). The result: most TDS customers in rural areas (depending on location), will experience 25Mbps Internet (3Mbps upload), guaranteed.

would sure be a nice upgrade to bring us more to to the 2017 speed of the rest of the country.
http://www.speedtest.net/reports/ is interesting to browse for the USA and other countries.

I don't know what is in the works so I'll keep my fingers crossed (maybe map glitch or alternative project for some areas in the works) I sure hope the Island can get a boost from this. Thanks very much to all who have communicated this hope to TDS.

[Ruddelle]

Yes, my address qualifies for upgrade. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[stardust]

The FCC has determined there is one or more additional providers offering broadband service in your area. So who are these additional providers and how do you contact them??