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USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand will be on hand to celebrate the award of $2.3 million to Yadtel Telecom to bring fiber optic broadband speeds to residences and businesses without 10/1 Mbps internet service in the Yadkin Valley TMC’s East Bend, Davie, Courtney, Harmony and Cooleemee exchanges.

Rural Americans are 24 percent more likely to have children unable to participate in online learning, while the parents are unable to work from home.

This investment fallows Yadtel Telecom to lay another 70 miles of fiber internet and represents another important milestone; it is Yadtel’s mission not to rest until the remaining 9,500 homes have the same opportunities to work and learn as their neighbors.

“Access to high-speed internet is a cornerstone of prosperity, and unfortunately many of America’s rural communities lack access to this critical infrastructure … connecting America’s rural communities to this essential infrastructure is one of USDA’s top priorities, because we know that when rural America thrives, all of America thrives,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand.

Yadkin Valley will use the $2.3 million ReConnect grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premise network that helps connect people, farms, and businesses in certain areas of Davie, Yadkin, and Iredell county to high-speed broadband internet.

“Yadtel Telecom is proud to be a premiere provider of reliable, high-speed internet. We are committed in our efforts as a partner in the deployment of high-speed broadband e-Connectivity to areas in local communities that lack access to such critical infrastructure,” said Janet Culpepper, vice president of human resources & public relations at Yadtel Telecom.  “Yadtel is passionate about building essential infrastructure to meet the critical needs for high-speed broadband internet in either unserved and underserved rural communities.”

In 2010, Yadtel received a $22 million 50/50 loan/ grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Broadband Initiative Program (BIP).

The ReConnect Grant for $2,300,000 provides fiber optic cable to 10 non-contiguous proposed funded service areas (PFSAs)located within Yadtel’s traditional local exchange. PFSAs are sparsely populated areas that lack access to internet speeds above 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload.