Ohio Receives $11.7 Million to Expand Broadband Access to 14,000 Ohioans

Columbus, Ohio--Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today announced that the Ohio non-profit OneCommunity has been awarded $11.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act resources to expand broadband adoption by more than 14,000 disconnected Ohioans in Cleveland, Akron and several Appalachian counties. "Connect Your Community" will create 58 direct new jobs in Ohio.

OneCommunity has received a total of $18.5 million in ARRA resources for the "Connect Your Community" program, which will also facilitate projects in Florida, Michigan, Mississippi and Kentucky.

In 2008, the Strickland Administration created Connect Ohio, a plan to compile and map broadband availability in Ohio, including location, available speed and type of technology delivering the service.

• In December last year, the State of Ohio was awarded a $1.8 million federal grant from NTIA to help gather broadband availability data to support the development of a National Broadband Map...