By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Ideatek was a recipient of four COVID-19 related Connectivity Emergency Response Grants awarded this week.
"All of these projects that we were awarded, the premise of it is that we know that people are suffering from having slow internet in these very rural areas," said Abby Stockebrand with Ideatek.
IdeaTek announced on Thursday that the company will complete a $2.5 million infrastructure investment in Reno County and surrounding counties, including $2 million in CERG funding. There will be both wired and wireless components to the build out, simply because of time constraints.
"We couldn't do all of them at once," Stockebrand said. "We also had to provide these services to the most underserved premises provided by the Kansas Department of Commerce. We do have quite a few communities in Reno County specifically. Langdon, Arlington, Abbyville, Willowbrook and Pretty Prairie are going to be getting fiber to the premise throughout the town."
IdeaTek will begin infrastructure construction immediately, with service becoming available in early 2021.
"We have about half of our premises are going to be served by fiber and about half of them are going to be wireless," Stockebrand said. "The infrastructure will need to be in place by the end of the year. It's going to be very, very quick, but we know that people need it pretty direly in these areas."
This is in addition to already planned expansion the company was doing in portions of Reno, Sedgwick and Harvey counties under a separate funding source.