By Kevin Lavery, WKAR News
EAST LANSING, MI –
Michigan State University has received a $6-million federal grant to expand broadband communication services across the state.
The grant is the second of its kind awarded to the university this year. The first round allowed MSU to create 88 library computing centers in regions suffering high unemployment.
Larry Strickland is the director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He says MSU will use this new funding to establish more than 200 additional computing centers.
"Students at MSU will be involved in helping to train people on computers in these libraries, and the centers themselves will be serving an additional 180,000 weekly users, with increased computer speeds and with longer hours of operation," he says.
MSU is one of three organizations in Michigan to receive grant funding. In total, the project invests $180-million in the state's broadband infrastructure.