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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in the Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 23 Stories
William French standing near produce in his farmers market.

Streamlining Farm Operations in Cumberland

William French’s family farm has been in continuous operation for more than a century, so each generation has had a front row seat for subtle shifts in the agricultural landscape of Central Virginia. Though a lot had changed since his great-great grandfather first grew tobacco… [Read More]
Virginia
BroadbandBusinessSmall Business
Worker installing fiber line on an existing electric pole.

Transforming Lives and Livelihoods One Connection at a Time

It’s no coincidence that the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) named their internet subsidiary after a small, luminescent insect. The parallels between the push to power rural homes in the 1930’s and the challenge of bringing broadband to remote areas of the state… [Read More]
Virginia
Broadband
Reel of Fiber in rural countryside.

ReConnecting Rural Residents to Reliable High-Speed Internet

High-speed internet used to be considered a luxury for many rural customers. When the pandemic hit, the need for reliable broadband service became a priority. Thanks to Rural Development’s ReConnect program, rural customers near Timber Lake now will have reliable internet… [Read More]
South Dakota
BroadbandInfrastructureTechnologyTelecommunicationsTribalUtilities
USDA RD's ReConnect program helped Lindsay's family access high-speed internet

Home Telephone Company Rings up ReConnect Success in McClellanville, South Carolina

Lindsay is a working mother in McClellanville, South Carolina, and like many people living in rural communities, lacking access to reliable, high-speed internet used to be a challenge that affected her entire family.   “Especially when the kids came home from school,… [Read More]
South Carolina
BroadbandGrantsRural DevelopmentTelecommunications
People standing behind a sign

High Speed Internet for Southwestern Montana

Southern Montana Telephone Company, located in Wisdom, received a $3.3 million ReConnect grant in 2019 which they used to bring high-speed internet to nearly 1,000 customers, spread out over almost 2,000 miles, in Southwestern Montana. For more information on USDA Rural… [Read More]
Montana
BroadbandGrantsUtilities
ATMC is bringing access to the internet with speeds up to 1 Gps to thousands of homes and businesses in Columbus County since partnering with the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development. A recent ReConnect Grant of $7.9 million will expand their reach to another 4,000 homes and businesses.

Rural N.C. gets access to internet through USDA RD/ATMC

Rural North Carolina is continuing to adapt to the digital age where high-speed internet is essential. There is a powerful ally in this evolution with the Atlantic Telephone Membership Corporation.ATMC is bringing access to the internet with speeds up to 1 Gps to thousands of… [Read More]
North Carolina
BroadbandHigh Speed Internet
Paul Bunyan Communications Staff

Bringing Home the Broadband in Rural Minnesota

Paul Bunyan Communications, based in Bemidji, Minnesota, has taken advantage of the RUS Telecommunications Broadband loan program to build-out a high speed broadband network covering their entire service area. Their goal of connecting every institution, every business, and every… [Read More]
Minnesota
Broadband

Broadband Service Changing Lives in Rural Tennessee

  North Central Telephone Cooperative (NCTC) recently completed construction of more than 1,000 miles of Fiber To The Home (FTTH) facilities making broadband service available to approximately 14,000 households, 951 businesses, and 48 strategic institutions. … [Read More]
Tennessee
BroadbandCommunity ConnectTelecommunications
Softcom's BIP Project

Softcom’s Digital Footprint Impacting North-Central California

Softcom Internet Communications, Inc. (Softcom) is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) based in Galt, California serving rural portions of North-Central California. Due to topographical challenges of the terrain, Softcom needed assistance expanding its existing network to… [Read More]
California
Broadband
Molalla Telephone

Telecom Company Helps Rural Businesses Compete in Global Marketplace

Many rural communities lack the necessary infrastructure to provide broadband services, creating myriad challenges for local residents, businesses, schools, and other essential community services. In contrast, residents of Molalla and Mulino, Oregon, are gaining access to… [Read More]
Oregon
Broadband

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