Under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funding was awarded to Keystone Initiative for Network-Based Education and Research. The $99 million federal stimulus grant is intended to create a 39-county broadhband network.
The funding will enable building a high-speed, fiber optic, 1,700 mile-long cable network, covering areas that have poor broadband access now.
Spokesman for Penn State, one of the anchor insitutions in the Keystone Inititative, said that the completed network will allow all their campuses to be connected at very high speeds. The network will support research and distance education at the universities, and enable connections with remote clinics for health care institutions.
The spokesman added that by working together with other institutions, it was possible to come up with a much stronger proposal for funding.
The network has been compared to a broadband highway with “exit ramps” where electronics systems will be based to serve as access points to the network. The proposal is to provide 13 core nodes and 45 to 50 local ones. It could reach more than 2 million households and 200,000 businesses.
Read the story about Funding for New Broadband Network.
