Big River moves forward on Southeast Missouri broadband expansion

Big River Telephone Company is moving forward on its $33 million wireless broadband Internet project now that is has secured federal stimulus funding.

Since Gov. Jay Nixon joined company management to announce $24 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's broadband initiative last August the project has been on hold.

After months and months of paperwork, the funding was finalized last week, said Big River President Kevin Cantwell on Tuesday.

In addition to a $12.2 million grant and $12.2 million loan from the federal government, Big River is committing $9 million toward the project expected to take about 20 months to complete.

"During the due diligence process, Big River Broadband was moving forward, despite funding not having been finalized. Thanks to our preparedness, we're ready to move forward without delay now," Cantwell said.

Work to upgrade Big River's communications tower at its Minnesota Street headquarters was done last week to create a testing site for the new service. The testing site is not for public use at this time. Construction will begin soon on 58 more towers in the seven-county region to be served by the project.

Big River Broadband's wireless network will serve Washington, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Madison, Perry, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties. Basic home service will be priced at $14.99 per month.

Big River's project will be designed to provide access to 90 percent of the seven-county area it will serve, including 44,967 households, 7,511 businesses, 61 schools and 143 medical facilities.

Currently, only 29 percent of the households in this area have high-speed internet access, according to Cantwell.

He declined to specify which areas will receive access to service first, but the company Tuesday launched a new website to keep people up to date on work in their county. The site, www.bigriverbroadband.com, also has background information about broadband and job opportunities.

Big River's project is part of the MoBroadbandNow initiative, a public-private partnership to build broadband access across the state. Gov. Jay Nixon previously said his goal is to increase broadband accessibility from its current level of 79.7 percent to 95 percent within five years.

The company plans to add 75 employees who will work at Big River Broadband's new headquarters in Farmington, Mo., and at four regional "solution centers" where people can sign up for wireless broadband and cellular phone services.

Look for more on this story later at www.semissourian.com and in the Wednesday Southeast Missourian.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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24 S. Minnesota, Cape Girardeau, MO