Read more: Local, Community, Internet, Broadband, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, Ralls County, Rural Electric Cooperative
NEW LONDON, MO -- Ralls County residents soon will travel down the Information Superhighway a lot faster.
Millions of dollars are on the way to expand broadband, high-speed Internet services there.
KHQA's Rajah Maples spoke with Missouri's governor Tuesdsay afternoon about what this means for Northeast Missouri, and the rest of the country, for that matter.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon visited the Ralls County Electric Cooperative on Tuesday for a welcomed announcement -- more than $19 million dollars in grants and loans to expand broadband, high-speed Internet services in Ralls County. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It will help the Coop lay about 12-hundred miles of high-speed, fiber-optic cable.
The new fiber network will service 5,000 homes, businesses and organizations. The plans are a key piece of Gov. Nixon's MoBroadbandNow Initiative.
Construction will start in March and is expected to be finished by May 2013. Customers will be connected to the new network throughout the construction process and could have access to the new lines as early as April 2010.
The MoBroadbandNow Project would expand broadband accessibility to 91.5 percent of the total population. Currently, only about 80 percent of Missouri residents have broadband access.
Pulse Broadband, the contractor on the Ralls County project, estimates the new network will create 35 to 40 new jobs, with the potential to create more than 1300 additional jobs in the future.
