Mediacom Communications has announced that its fiber optic network was recently extended to serve three underserved Iowa communities. As a result, residents and businesses in Cushing (Woodbury County), Meservey (Cerro Gordo County) and Schaller (Sac County) now have access to Mediacom’s 1 Gig internet service.
Schaller, Cushing and Meservey join Wesley (Kossuth County) as new communities Mediacom has brought online since the start of 2021. By year end, the company is working toward activating services in Pomeroy (Calhoun County) as well as the Crawford County communities of Deloit and Kiron and the Keokuk County cities of Keswick, South English and Webster.
In addition to the nearly $4 million private investment that Mediacom is making to provide the more than 2,000 homes and businesses in these 10 Iowa communities with first-time access to a fiber-optic network built with Gigabit technology, the state of Iowa is contributing more than $900,000 from the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program toward the construction cost.
“We continue to invest significant resources to bring the best broadband technology to rural Iowans searching for reliably-fast internet for everything from telemedicine to remote work to the streaming of sports and entertainment,” said Mediacom senior vice president Ed Pardini. “We share the goal of Iowa leaders seeking to fill gaps where true broadband service has not been available, and we appreciate that our expansion efforts are being supported with partial funding from the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program.”
All homes across Mediacom’s Iowa network can choose from Internet speeds ranging from 60 Mbps all the way up to 1 Gig. In addition, Mediacom participates in multiple programs designed to help low-income households affordably get online, including Connect2Compete and the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. Mediacom’s network now reaches homes and businesses in 320 Iowa communities.
