FAIRBANKS - Alaska, with its sprawling geography and sparse population, is stepping back to get a better look at its lines of communication.

The state has gotten almost $2 million in federal grants to map broadband Internet infrastructure here, federal agencies reported Monday.

It’s part of a much bigger project — the effort to create a map of fiber-optic lines and other broadband infrastructure across the United States, said Krag Johnsen, chief operating officer at the Denali Commission.

The commission received the grants and will work with a contractor on the two-year mapping and planning project. The money is a small slice of billions included in last year’s federal economic stimulus plan for Internet-related projects.

“This initiative will deliver a comprehensive and accurate broadband map down to the census block level for all areas of Alaska and develop Alaska’s very first Broadband Steering Committee,” Johnsen said in a news release.

The Alaska grants comprise a $1.4 million award to collect data and mapping and another $500,000 for activity planning, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which awarded the grant as part of a batch announced Monday. It will fund a Geographic Information System mapping project, one Johnsen estimated would fund about a dozen jobs over the next two years.

Alaska is also keeping a close watch on the billions available for broadband construction projects. Johnsen said companies and nonprofits in the state have collectively submitted roughly 30 applications to the NTIA for proposed projects, including what would be a massive undersea fiber optic cable between Southcentral Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.

The federal government could announce recipients from that review applications soon, Johnsen said.

The Alaska steering committee will include representatives from state, federal and nonprofit agencies and will work toward expanding broadband to rural parts of the state, the administration reported.

“This interactive web site will be critical to ensure accessibility of the broadband data, but will also be key to increasing awareness of the mapping program and the benefits of broadband,” according to a synopsis of the project, drafted by the commission.

Money through the grants is also going to Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri, the federal agency reported. Applications arrived from within all 50 states following word the stimulus plan included grant funding for broadband projects.

Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.