Big broadband deal OK’ed

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A Michigan nonprofit group will get nearly $70 million from the federal government to build a 1,200-mile high-speed Internet line across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that also will connect with Duluth.

The federal grant goes to the Ann Arbor-based Merit Network, a nonprofit, member-owned organization formed in 1966 to help design and operate computer networks between Michigan universities.

The money was announced today by U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and comes under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Another $32 million from the same program is going to the University of Wisconsin system for increased broadband access statewide, including the University of Wisconsin-Superior, in a grant expected to be announced later today.

Merit plans to build a network on the Upper Peninsula that will offer speeds between 100 megabytes-per-second and 10 gigabytes-per-second.

Tags: two harbors, news, broadband