Today, September 13th, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling along with members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation announced that Connecticut will be the recipient of a $94 million Recovery Act Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant that will help improve broadband internet access and support economic recovery and job creation in Connecticut.

This project will deliver 100 megabits per second fiber service to many community anchor institutions in Connecticut that currently lack this level of connectivity as well the redundancy necessary to ensure uninterrupted broadband access, including Connecticut’s K-12 school districts, colleges and universities, public libraries and public computing centers.

This grant will allow the following libraries to receive upgraded service through the Connecticut Education Network (CEN) and the
Department of Information Technology. These libraries currently receive frame or DSL service through the CEN. This grant will be implemented over the next three years with most of the upgrades being done within 2 years. Thank you to the libraries that provided letters of support for this BTOP application. Your letters were critical to the grant’s success.

Ansonia Public Library, Avon Free Public Library, Brookfield Public Library, Burnham Public Library in Bridgewater, Chaplin Library, Chester Library, East Hartford Public Library, East Lyme Public Library, Eastford Library, Edward Smith Library in North Branford, Enfield Library, Groton Public Library, Janet Carlson Calvert Library in Franklin, Killingworth Library, Libraries Online Inc.in Middletown, Licia and Mason Library,in New Hartford, Mark Twain Library in Redding, Middletown Library Service Center, Morris Public Library, New Fairfield Library, Portland Library, Prosser Public Library in Bloomfield, Rathbun Free Memorial Library in East Haddam, Salem Library, Simsbury Public Library, Union Free Library, Wethersfield Public Library, Westport Public Library, and the Willimantic Library Service Center