Make big bucks rolling out broadband to unserved areas!
Attention, all high speed Internet lovers—the government has released its first Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) and is asking for applications to spend that broadband stimulus money. This is phase one of the roll-out of that $7.2 billion worth of broadband stimulus cash contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. You can bet your best router that folks across the country are reading the NOFA backwards and forwards in preparation for the application window, which begins on July 14, 2009 at 8:00am eastern time and closes on August 14, 2009 at 5:00 pm.
Here's the thumbnail version of what the key agencies are looking for—they being the Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service's Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP).
The RUS has $2.5 billion to fork out in the form of grants and loans to broadband projects for areas that are at least 75 percent rural and lack "sufficient access to high speed broadband service to facilitate rural economic development." BTOP is sluicing out an additional $4.7 billion for "unserved" and "underserved" areas (we'll get to those definitions soon).In this first round of applications, $4 billion of that money is available: $2.4 billion for BIP and $1.6 for BTOP. There are two more rounds still to come.
Priorities
You need to be a current or past RUS borrower to get in on the BIP windfall, and the RUS says it will smile on applications that request loans rather than outright grants. For both agencies, the process has two phases. In phase one, the people in charge of this process will weed out applications that they think are incomplete or indicate that the applicant is plainly ineligible. In phase two, the highest-scoring competitors will be asked for more documentation.
BTOP says it's looking for projects that fit into three categories: Broadband Infrastructure, Public Computer Centers, and Sustainable Broadband Adoption. The first is for "last mile" or "middle mile" type projects—"last" meaning end user services and "middle" meaning things like backhaul. The second is for projects that enhance high speed Internet at libraries, community colleges, and other such places. The third will include projects to boost internet demand—training programs, technical support networks, or efforts at educational outreach, "particularly among vulnerable population groups where broadband technology has traditionally been underutilized."
Definitions
As already mentioned, these proposals must serve "unserved" or "underserved" areas. Unserved means regions consisting of one or more census blocks where at least 9 out of 10 households in said area "lack access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service, either fixed or mobile, at the minimum broadband transmission speed." Underserved means places where half the households lack access to service, or areas where no land or mobile service offers broadband with at least 3Mpbs, or areas where less than 40 percent of households subscribe to any kind of broadband service.
And how does the NOFA define "broadband"? Here ya go: "Two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits per second (kbps) downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in a middle mile project to support the provision of broadband service to end users." So there. It's settled. (This is better than the old FCC definition of 200Kbps... but not by much.)
In the case of the BTOP grants, the lion's share of the loot ($1.2 billion) is reserved for Broadband Infrastructure Projects. Public Computer Center ideas will get no more than $50 million. And the Sustainable Broadband program can hand out $150 million and that's it.
It looks like just about anybody can apply for these grants (assuming in the case of BIP they're already in the RUS system): non-profits, for-profit corporations, cooperatives, and state and local governments, among other mentioned entities. So can Native American tribes.
Neutrality promises
But, to get the cash, you have to swear on a stack of—who knows... UNIX operating manuals?—that you'll adhere to the Federal Communication Commission's Internet Policy Statement, which calls for consumers to be able to use the device of their choice on the 'Net. Plus you've got to promise not to favor one Internet application over another and to explain your network management policies prominently on your website.
But all these network management requirements are subject to "the needs of law enforcement and reasonable network management," the NOFA adds, including "generally accepted technical measures" to offer "application-neutral bandwidth allocation" and to deal with the usual nasties: spam, denial-of-service raids, and, of course, "illegal content."
You've also got to show that if you get one of these grants, you're ready to move, with the rest of the funding you need to get started. At the same time—and this feels like a bit of a Catch-22—you've got to demonstrate that "the project would not have been implemented during the grant period without federal grant assistance."
There is also a list of thou-shalt-nots regarding this stimulus money. You can't use it to pay for the operating expenses of your project. This money is primarily intended for capital costs, it appears. And you can't use it for previous costs, or to acquire some other company, or to buy licensed FCC spectrum.
As is often the case, these proposed projects will be evaluated on the basis of a point system. The BTOP applications will be rated in four areas: Project Purpose (30 points); Project Benefits (25 points); Project Viability (25 points); and Project Budget and Sustainability (20 points). All the BTOP awards have to be made no later than September 30, 2010.
