McDonough Telephone Cooperative (MTC) received an $18 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network in Illinois. MTC’s Fiber network will connect 1,583 people, 274 farms and 41 businesses to high-speed internet in Hancock, Henderson, McDonough and Warren counties. Public Relations Director Rachel Kerns explains how the process has been coming along:
“We were awarded the ReConnect Grant, just about two years ago, but it has been in the government approval stages, so we haven’t been able to start construction with that. That covers a very large portion of rural Hancock County. It was an $18 million grant from the government and then we are putting in our own $6.5 million, so $24.5 million total of fiber infrastructure that will be going into rural Hancock County that just desperately needs reliable internet service. That also spans over into Kirkwood a little bit. We do already have fiber in the community of Kirkwood, but the ReConnect Grant will help us get into those rural parts and connect some of our extra network. We did Stronghurst and Roseville in the last couple of years, so very excited to have those communities hooked up and make them have a reliable connection as well. Then on the Monmouth side, we have been expanding in the rural areas as well. We just finished connecting Cameron to our fiber network this past fall and winter.”
Applications have been received through the winter months in Cameron and work will begin again in the Spring and Avon has also been completed.
