USDA Awards $310 Million to 14 Broadband Providers
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, January 25, 2010 · 
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The USDA announced today that it has selected 14 new BIP projects that will receive nearly $310 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, of which more than $250 million was awarded to NTCA members. An additional $3.5 million will be made available through private investment.
This is the largest amount of government funding that has been awarded since Congress allocated $7.2 billion for broadband deployment in last year’s stimulus bill.
The awards were in the form of 50/50 matching grants and loans. Among the awards:
- BEK Communications Cooperative (Steele, N.D.) has been selected to receive $4 million in funds, with an additional $2 million in leveraged funds. The company will expand the existing system to offer fiber-to-the-premises service to more than 540 homes and anchor institutions.
- LaMotte Telephone Co. (LaMotte, Iowa) received $376,000 to build a WiMAX network in northeast Iowa.
- Rural Telephone Service Co. (Lenora, Kan.) received $101 million to provide service in an area which is 99.5% unserved/underserved. It leads a team of seven other companies for this project.
- United Utilities (Anchorage, Alaska) received $88.1 million to provide middle-mile connectivity to 65 communities in southwestern Alaska.
The release has additional awardees broken out on a state-by-state and project basis.
Including this latest round of funding, the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service has doled out $363.7 million for 22 broadband projects across the country. USDA will award a total of $2.5 billion in stimulus money for broadband programs.
Stay tuned to NTCA’s Washington Report for more.
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Is this BIP $310 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment based on the first round of funding? When will the USDA annouce everyone that has been selected on the first round?
Great questions. Yes, these awards are from the first round of funding through the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), created through the Recovery Act.
Here is what RUS said about Round 1 awards in its FAQ for Round 2 (page 10): Round-one award announcements began in mid-December 2009, and will continue through February 2010. Applicants will receive notice of the outcome of their round-one applications prior to the round-two application deadline.
In regards to round two, the agencies plan to accept applications from February 16, 2010, to March 15, 2010, and announce all awards by September 30, 2010.