More companies are showing interest in the Monroe $1,000 Gigabit Project introduced last month by the Monroe 2030 Action Team and Pocono Mountains Economic Development Corporation.

The state-of-the-art incubator and company accelerator is located at the East Stroudsburg University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. Last month East Stroudsburg University.A second information session was held Friday at the university. While the startup was originally looking for 23 companies to complete its survey, the group has seen 37 organizations express interest by completing the survey.With such a great response, the group is now hoping to raise the number of interested companies to 42.The group hopes to push Monroe County to Gigabit City Status, which enables buyers to purchase 1 gigabit Internet connections for $1,000 or less, annually. The group says there are 120 gigabit cities in the United States and young people and young companies flock to these areas seeking the fastest and cheapest Internet.According to Kelly Lewis, president of Lewis Strategics and Bob Hagarman, director of business development for BIG Wireless, five broadband providers are interested in the project as well.The request for proposal is expected to go out to the providers in February.Additional meetings will be held in February, March, April and May.Organizations interested in $1,000 Gigabit are being asked to complete a brief survey by visiting

https://goo.gl/forms/4LQakQXtOnvrU2yz1 in order to become a participant. David Parker will serve as a local point of contact for Monroe County participating organizations. David may be reached at

dparker18301@gmail.com or 570-656-9232.