The federal government is allocating its next round of broadband stimulus funds, with $310 million going to 14 rural communities towards job creation and broadband deployment.

"This big batch of projects will create urgently needed jobs now and also build networks that will fuel rural economic development for years to come," said Jonathan Adelstein, who heads the Agriculture
Department's Rural Utilities Service, which is awarding the money.

The funds were announced by the Agricultural Department on Monday as part of the larger $7.2 billion allocated in last year's stimulus bill to fund high-speed Internet access and adoption programs. Primarily, the money is targeted to bring jobs and opportunity to rural and low-income areas. In addition, the funds will support infrastructure for telemedicine services, online education and other initiatives.

The projects receiving broadband funding include:

* An $88.1 million grant and loan to an Alaskan telecommunications
company that will build "middle mile" networks to connect 65 Eskimo
towns and villages in southwestern Alaska to the Internet.

* A $19.1 million grant and loan to a Missouri electric cooperative to
build a fiber-optic network that will reach nearly 5,000 homes,
businesses, public safety entities and community organizations in rural
Ralls County, Mo.

* A $3.9 million grant to a unit of TDS Telecommunications Corp. to
build a digital subscriber line network to serve homes, businesses and
community institutions in sparsely populated parts of Alabama.

* A $376,000 grant and loan to a telephone company to build a WiMax
network that can deliver wireless broadband connections to nearly 325
homes in northeast Iowa.