New Stimulus Grants: NTIA Awards $357M, RUS Awards $277M
Posted by Jesse Ward on Friday, February 19, 2010 · 
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NTIA and RUS recently announced new broadband stimulus grant awards. NTIA announced yesterday 10 new grants, totaling $357 million, for broadband projects in eight states. This is a substantial chunk of the $1.4 billion made available to the organization for distribution in the first broadband stimulus funding round.
The following awards were announced:
- North Florida Broadband Authority – $30.1 million for a 1,200-mile fixed wireless broadband network connecting more than 300 community anchor institutions
- Zayo Bandwidth – $25.1 million for a 626-mile fiber network in Indiana to interconnect community college campuses with 42 other colleges and universities that already are interconnected
- Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research – $99.5 million to build a 1,700-mile fiber research and education network in Pennsylvania to connect 60 community anchor institutions
- Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – $28.8 million to increase Internet connection speeds for community anchor institutions and underserved areas by adding a 649-mile Ethernet backbone and 612 miles of fixed wireless links
- Executive Office of the State of West Virginia – $126.3 million to expand the state’s current microwave public safety network and add about 2,400 miles of fiber
- State of Wisconsin Department of Administration – $22.9 million to connect libraries, schools and community colleges to an existing high-speed network by deploying 203 new miles of fiber
NTIA also awarded three grants for public computing centers in California, Louisiana and New York, and one for sustainable broadband adoption in West Virginia.
On February 17, RUS awarded grants to 11 broadband infrastructure projects in nine states, for a total of $277 million. Below is a review of the most recent projects awarded by RUS:
- Indiana - Smithville Telephone Co. Inc.: $37.7 million loan to provide approx. 3,800 households, 200 businesses, and 12 community anchor institutions with broadband
- Iowa - Southeast Iowa Rural Wireless Broadband: $3 million loan to provide wireless broadband to 80 rural communities
- Kentucky - Mountain Rural Telephone Cooperative Corp. ILEC Broadband: $39.8 million loan and $38.2 million grant to create a fiber network that will provide fiber 20 Mbps bandwidth to end users
- Louisiana - Allen’s Cable – FTTP Broadband Network Extension: $3.5 million loan and a $3.5 million grant to buildout fiber into rural areas
- Louisiana – LBH LLC – Rural Broadband Powered by Fiber: $16.6 million loan and a $16.6 million grant to expand broadband service
- Minnesota - Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group: $6.3 million loan and a $6.3 million grant to provide service to eight rural communities
- Missouri - Unionville, Missouri FTTP Project: $5.1 million loan and a $5.1 million grant
- New Mexico - Western New Mexico Telephone Co. Broadband Infrastructure Project: $11.5 million grant to provide last-mile broadband services
- New Mexico – Baca Valley Telephone Co. Inc.: $1.65 million loan and $1.58 grant to expand fiber to DSL nodes
- Oregon - Sandy Broadband Infrastructure Project: $374,548 loan and $374,537 grant for wireless broadband service
- Texas - Southern Texas Broadband Infrastructure Development and Adoption Project: $40 million loan and a $38.5 million grant to develop a broadband infrastructure in 11 communities
In related news, NTIA and RUS started accepting round 2 applications on February 16. The deadline for submitting in Round 2 is March 15.
However, before the government can turn its attention to new applications, it’s apparent that both agencies have unfinished business to attend to. As you may remember, NTIA and RUS pushed back the deadline to announce Round 1 stimulus winners until January, but when push came to shove this new deadline was missed as well. The agencies were unexpectedly delayed by closures of government offices as a result of heavy snowfall in the D.C. metro area in the past few weeks.
An RUS spokesperson told Connected Planet today that notices are now “on their way” to applicants rejected in Round 1, and all remaining awards in this round will be made by the end of February.
Applications from Round 1 will not be carried forward to Round 2, although some funds might be.
In Round 1, the government received nearly 2,200 applications totaling $28 billion, all vying for the $4 billion in broadband stimulus money available in that initial round.
For more, visit BroadbandUSA.
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