TDS Telecom is duking it out with the likes of Comcast, Frontier Communications, Verizon and Breezeline as it pursues broadband grants in at least three states. The operator has achieved mixed results with its grant efforts so far in 2022, walking away with a loss in Wisconsin but a win in Tennessee.
Drew Petersen, TDS SVP of External Affairs, told Fierce it has “five pending grant applications in Minnesota as well as one in Virginia.” In the latter, it is seeking nearly $4.6 million to reach over 2,800 locations in Craig County. It was not immediately clear how much it is asking for in Minnesota, but it has applied for funding to provide symmetrical 1 Gbps service in the areas around Enfield, Monticello, Danube, Kerkhoven and Sunburg.
The operator has also submitted letters of intent to apply for 11 projects in Alabama.
Thus far in 2022, TDS’ efforts to win grant funding have yielded mixed results. It submitted six applications for Wisconsin’s 2022 State Broadband Expansion Grant program, seeking a total of around $22 million to reach just under 2,500 locations. The state passed it over entirely, though, awarding nearly $125 million to the likes of Charter Communications, Frontier Communications and Brightspeed, among others.
However, TDS won grants totaling around $2 million from a different Wisconsin program – its ARPA Broadband Access Grant program – in March to cover around 1,000 locations. This week the operator also bagged a major win in Tennessee, snagging $12.9 million to connect approximately 3,700 locations in Monroe County.
“Although some of our recent applications didn’t result in wins, over the last 10 years our grant awards of nearly $50 million have been applied to approximately $85 million in projects to deliver high-speed connections to rural and underserved areas,” Petersen said.
In Virginia, TDS’ project is competing with proposals from Breezeline, Verizon, Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel), Comcast and Cox Communications for nearly $50 million in funding. For context, Virginia’s broadband grant program has been oversubscribed for the past two years, with $943.3 million requested but only $722 million awarded in the most recent round.
Meanwhile, it is squaring off with Charter, Comcast, Frontier and Mediacom in Minnesota. In Alabama, AT&T, Brightspeed, Charter, Comcast, C-Spire, Mediacom and Windstream have all submitted letters of intent to apply for grant funding.