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Manager’s Memo - for the week ending August 20, 2010
More Broadband Funding to Missouri: Two broadband stimulus grants totaling more than $66 million were awarded Wednesday for projects in Missouri. Bluebird Media, LLC was awarded $45.1 million to construct a middle-mile network serving 59 counties in northern Missouri and the city of St. Louis. The project includes construction of 809 miles of fiber and 44 microwave towers. Bluebird's plan, which is part of Governor Nixon's MoBroadbandNow initiative, will be supplemented with a non-monetary $10.5 million contribution from the state in the form of right-of-way use on state roads.
United Electric Cooperative will receive $21.2 million to build a FTTP network serving 4,200 households and businesses in six counties in northwest Missouri. This week's announcement included awards totaling $1.8 billion for 94 projects in 37 states.
Granby Keeps Customers Informed on FTTH Project: MTIA member company Granby Telephone Company is getting their customers actively engaged in the progress of a major FTTH project now underway in their service area. Granby's fiber to the home network rebuild began last July and will continue through 2014. To keep their customer base up to date on the broadband deployment, Granby is sending a project newsletter to all customers each quarter to track the plan's progress. And, with a special "In Progress" report available on their website, Granby is highlighting the benefits of the broadband project online. Check out the project at http://www.gtcbroadband.net/inprogress.
Conference Presentations Available: Several outstanding presentations from our just-concluded annual conference are now available online. If you missed our meeting in Branson or want to review what you saw there in more detail, just click on the "Annual Conference Presentations" link at our home page -- www.mtia.org.
Hey -- It's Not All Work: Missouri's telecom leaders took a little time off at our recent conference to network, golf, shoot and relax in beautiful Branson. The Payne Stewart Golf Course hosted 70 MTIA players for a fun scramble on a great course. Winning in a score card play-off with a crisp round of 60 was the team of Paul Pederson, TDS; Dave Haas, Champion Precast; Steve Robillard, Telplexus, Inc.; and Joe Gerot, Kiesling Associates.
Second place went to the team of Mike Brigman and Shana Rains from Missouri Network Alliance; Cory Strange, Fishnet Security; and Kevin Kidd, CenturyLink. A great score of 64 gave third place to the team of Gregg Diamond, Verizon; Andy Smith, CoBank; Craig Unruh, AT&T Missouri ; and Chuck Dove, Action Battery. Our thanks to golf chairman Jay Mitchell, president of Seneca Telephone Company, for organizing another great MTIA tournament.
A record number of 32 MTIA shooters filled the Ozark Shooters Sports Complex for an all-day event. Top gun honors went to James Lyon, son of Jim Lyon of Mark Twain Rural Telephone Company. Other top shots included Larry Clark of C-Com, Inc. and Bill Rohde of Mark Twain. Thanks to Charlie Crow, president of Farber Telephone Company and tournament chairman, for another great outing.
Industry Partner of the Week: MTIA member company Walker & Associates, Inc. is a leading distributor of new and refurbished next generation products and equipment to Missouri telecommunications providers. For more information contact Bill Durham, regional account manager, at 972-765-5984 or visit them online at www.walkerfirst.com
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