Cunningham Fiber has received a second Broadband Acceleration Grant by the Kansas Department of Commerce to continue to build rural fiber in Cloud County. Cunningham is slated to build approximately 60 miles of new fiber optic infrastructure extending its network around the City of Concordia. This new fiber optic network will bring high-speed broadband and telecommunications access to under and unserved rural residents.
Due to the sparse population in rural areas, this grant award helps bring new broadband access for residents and businesses who have traditionally been too cost prohibitive to reach with fiber access. This grant will help with 50% of the initial capital costs to build the network. Customers in this new project area will have access to the same Cunningham fiber services as residents inside the city limits of Concordia including 1Gbps (1000Mbps) symmetrical internet speeds.
Construction on this new $1.8M fiber network will begin summer of 2025 with a scheduled completion date of August 2026.
“We’re excited to continue a phase two rural build to help close the unserved gaps in rural Cloud county. Our phase one was started in 2022 and completed last year. We built that 30 miles phase one with extra capacity and scalability with the idea we didn’t stop there. This phase two continues on and is twice as big. That’s how we hoped the Kansas Department of Commerce programs would work and we’re excited to continue to bring fiber broadband access to more and more residents, farms and businesses that live in the rural parts of of our counties,” states Brent Cunningham, Vice President and General Manager of Cunningham Fiber. “A big thank you to the Department of Commerce, CloudCorp and our many other partners who supported our application.”
According to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the average American household needs a minimum of 100 Mbps download by 20 Mbps upload to take advantage of the e-learning, telehealth, remote workplace, social media, video communication, gaming, and/or streaming capabilities that the Internet has to offer. Speeds up to 1 Gig download by 1 Gig upload are recommended for businesses and for households with multiple devices such as computers, tablets, smart TVs, Smart Home devices, and smart phones. The expansion of the Cunningham fiber network in rural Cloud County will allow for over 1 Gig synchronous speeds and is scalable for the future needs of the community.
Cunningham Fiber is dedicated to expanding its fiber footprint to underserved rural areas of Cloud County. They continue to apply for broadband funding opportunities provided by both state and federal agencies, as well as continue to invest their own funds into serving the communities. “We are continuing to apply for available broadband grants to help with construction costs of new rural fiber projects,” said Brent. “The end goal is to fill in all the gaps so that everyone in Cloud County has access to good broadband.”
Cunningham will contact potential customers along this project route during the Fall of 2025. For more information, visit www.ctcfiber.net or call one of our local offices. Glen Elder 785-545-3215 or Concordia 785-243-4068
Read more about the Governor’s press release here:
Governor Kelly Announces $10M for Broadband Projects in Rural Kansas (kansascommerce.gov)
Cunningham Fiber is a 5th generation family-owned telecommunications provider headquartered in Glen Elder, Kansas, providing high quality services to North Central Kansas for over 75 years.