First Take on NTIA’s Newest Broadband Grant Program

Kudos to Richard Lowenberg:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) on May 19, 2021, for the Broadband Infrastructure Program—what the Consolidated Appropriations Act referred to as the Promote Broadband Expansion Grant Program. The funding window for submission of grant applications is now open and will close on August 17, 2021.

 

This program represents a remarkable opportunity for communities and their private partners. Based on our first take on the NOFO, NTIA will fund projects that represent win-win, shared-risk scenarios as between public and private entities: projects in which public entities fund, build, and maintain communications infrastructure assets and their private partners operate those networks and provide services to the public.

 

This is a model we’ve long analyzed, developed, and championed because of the opportunity for communities to share risk and effort with private partners.

Of special note in Richard’s second paragraph above is the notion that public is the infrastructure while private is the network, services, and content. Provided that the public part can establish “net-neutrality” for the infrastructure’s private partners with a pronounced lack of monopolies, it would seem similar to the long held ideal of “Municipal’ control, where “mom and pop” services/ content can fairly compete.

But as always the devil is in the details, or in this case, the many pages of grant rules and forms to be filled out, and the need to “win out somehow” over other applicants. For which one can “buy points” with a fund match…which means “money talks” in the application process.

The program has only $288 million in total funding—for the entire country. Unfortunately, this means that competition will be stiff and only a fraction of worthy projects will be funded. In addition, though the program prioritizes rural projects, it does not rule out urban projects if their score is superior.

Same old same old in that the funds are not adequate for projects across the entire nation, the deadline is rushed, the competition seems to reward the size of the project/ amount of matching funds, and the usual “subjective/objective” factors of “who you know” will exist.

Another hurdle: the National Broadband Availability Map is still of questionable usefulness/ accuracy.

PSA recalls working to support a community/region wide grant application under similar circumstances back in 2008 with the Obama stimulus broadband grants. Because of the above listed challenges and a few additional, the outcome had mixed results, with only some parts being funded. We hope that the current hurdles can be overcome by a local and/or in-state project here in 2021.