(Lincoln, NE - August 18, 2010) – NebraskaLink, LLC announces its award of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).  NTIA has awarded a BTOP grant in the amount of $11,547,866 to NebraskaLink in order to build a self-healing optical network covering the state of Nebraska at a total cost of $16,500,000.  The project is expected to create 162 jobs.