internet access

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Six months after the award of a multi-million-dollar state grant to expand broadband internet service throughout Colquitt County, the project remains in the planning and engineering phase.

Kerri Jackson Case, public relations for Kinetic by Windstream, said construction is planned to begin in the fourth quarter of this year with completion expected by the end of 2024.

Kinetic partnered with the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners to apply for the grant, which is funded by federal coronavirus recovery money. Colquitt County was awarded $22.5 million.

Case said Colquitt and four other counties received grants that totaled almost $83.5 million from the state. Kinetic has partnered with Colquitt EMC for broadband projects in Berrien, Brooks, Colquitt, Cook and Lowndes counties.

Kinetic is also investing more than $52.6 million in the projects, Case said.

Once complete, she said, the projects will make broadband available to 31,904 households that don’t have it now. 

That will include almost every household in Colquitt County, according to information released when the grant was announced in February.

Case said Kinetic is working with the counties involved to hold town hall meetings to update residents on the progress of the project and to answer questions regarding service area. The dates are still to be decided, but she said they won’t be before fall.