AT&T and Vanderburgh County, Indiana, today announced the first locations to gain fiber connection as part of a $39 million fiber deployment contract in over 20,000 locations. The news marks part of AT&T’s most recent push to build out networks in unconnected areas in rural U.S. 

With the network core operational seven months after the announced contract was finalized in November of last year, the project is set for completion by November 2023. The additional sites in Vanderburgh model AT&T’s separate contract with the state of Indiana to deploy fiber-optic connection in nine counties across the state.

“As of Aug. 31, we have 106,461 fiber strand miles available in Vanderburgh County, reaching more than 2,000 customer locations,” Jeff Luong, President of Broadband Access and Adoption at AT&T, told SDxCentral, adding that the fiber network will cover 200,000 square miles of Vanderburgh County and “many parts of the City of Evansville.”

This partnership includes Vanderburgh County officials’ $9.9 million in public funds acquired from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2020, and $29.7 million from AT&T. The county has also signed a new agreement to build out to an additional 90 “customer locations,” according Luong.

“Combining public sector funding and private sector investment is the most cost-effective way to ensure more Americans are able to take advantage of robust connectivity,” AT&T CEO John Stankey stated in a press release about the news, where the new connection is capable of delivering up to 1 Gbps on both upload and download.

A big aid for consumers in financial need looking to access the connection is the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) – a benefit program included within The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act  providing $65 billion to broadband. The ACP provides a discount of up to $30 per month for internet service per household and up to $75 for households on qualifying Tribal Lands.

This offering can be applied to all AT&T fiber speed tiers, according to the release. Citizens can also apply the ACP benefit to Access from AT&T “to get internet speeds of up to 100Mbps, where available, for $0.”

Luong claimed AT&T will be raising awareness through marketing, public relation campaigns, and tapping retail channels, where sales teams will discuss options, emphasizing access to ACP benefits through Access from AT&T plans.

“Leaders across the state have created the ideal conditions for successful public-private collaborations. They made a point to create open and competitive processes for disbursing project funds – allowing for creative solutions to be deployed that are just right for each of their community’s needs,” Luong said.

Photo: Jeff Luong, President of Broadband Access and Adoption at AT&T. Source: AT&T