WASHINGTON, January 4, 2024 – Colorado on Wednesday tentatively granted more than $113.5 million in broadband expansion awards to 13 applicants to connect nearly 19,000 homes and businesses across southwest Colorado. 

All but one of the awardees are Colorado-based internet service providers and municipal network operators. The other, Visionary Communications, offers service across two additional states, Montana and Wyoming. 

Administered through the Advance Colorado Broadband Grant Program, the awards were funded by the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund. The program saw fierce competition, receiving 112 applications seeking a combined total of over $642 million across 47 counties.

Clearnetworx emerged as a major victor, securing $25.3 million for five projects. Based in Montrose, Colorado, the locally owned and operated fiber and wireless service provider arose in 2012 to address the region’s broadband scarcity.

Clearnetworx has been granted awards to install fiber along Highway 160 and Highway 184 in Montezuma County. This development coincides with the Colorado Transportation Commission’s recent approval of a fee schedule that allows broadband service providers to install fiber along the state’s roadways at reduced rates. Under the revised fiber access fee structure, broadband providers in rural counties such as Montezuma will gain access to some of the most competitive rates in the region, priced at $0.03 per foot.

Close on its heels, Maverix Broadband, is in line to win $25.1 million, aiming to deploy fiber-to-the-home services across Gilpin, Boulder, Chaffee, and Saguache counties, and Kiowa city, extending coverage to 731 locations in a city of 725 residents.

Fort Collins Connexion, a municipal broadband utility, secured $10.8 million for four projects serving 1,409 locations in Larimer County. Meanwhile, another municipal network operator, Loveland Pulse, is slated to receive $3.2 million to extend fiber connectivity to three service areas.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe secured $8.5 million to serve 557 locations within the Southern Ute Reservation, marking a significant step in enhancing connectivity.

The recipients are committing over $42 million in additional funds towards the project’s costs – a total $155.5 million investment. 

Additionally, more funding from the Capital Projects Fund is designated for the Ridge View campus in rural Colorado. This initiative aims to establish a supportive residential community to aid in overcoming homelessness, ensuring long-term housing stability, and fostering successful reintegration into preferred communities.

The awards are set for finalization following an ongoing challenge process.

The state is committed to connecting 99 percent of Colorado’s households to “adequate” broadband by 2027. Today, over 90 percent of Colorado’s households and businesses have access to internet with 100 * 20 Megabits per second service, according to state data.

WASHINGTON, January 4, 2024 – Florida announced on Wednesday $13 million in grant funding for devices through its Digital Connectivity Technology Program.

Counties, municipalities, non-profits, and organizations serving high-poverty areas can apply for grants until March 4. The funds can be used to make devices like laptops and routers available for loan at local community centers, or to equip those community centers with connectivity equipment and devices.

The money comes from the Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund, a $10 billion pandemic response that provides states money for expanding broadband infrastructure and other connectivity projects. About $9 billion of that has been awarded so far.

Florida received an additional $247 million in CPF funds for its Broadband Infrastructure Program, which the state awarded in July. Those projects are expected to get broadband 59,000 homes, businesses, farms, and community centers. 

CPF rules require new infrastructure funded by the program to deliver speeds of at least 100 * 100 Megabits per second (Mbps), but most projects funded by the state are expected to provide up to 1 * 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps).

The state will hold a webinar on the Digital Connectivity Technology Program’s application process on January 10.

WASHINGTON, December 28, 2023 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Thursday released a notice clarifying how it will apply the federal government’s grant management framework to its $42.5 billion broadband expansion program.

The NTIA sought comment on how to modify the framework, known as the Uniform Guidance, this summer after hearing from stakeholders that some provisions might harm participants in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, agency Deputy Chief Counsel Sean Conway said in a statement.

The agency said state broadband offices and internet providers repeatedly asked in those comments for Uniform Guidance adjustments that would bring BEAD in line with other federal broadband funding efforts managed by the Treasury Department. The Capital Projects Fund and Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund are already being used in part to deploy broadband infrastructure, and aligning the program would make it easier for states to administer BEAD.

The policy notice makes four updates to BEAD guidance to do so. The changes apply to awards for infrastructure projects, defined as those in which more than 50 percent of the total project cost are necessitated by infrastructure deployment.

Program income

Broadband providers will be able to use income from BEAD-funded infrastructure “without restriction,” meaning they can keep subscriber revenue as profit. That, the policy notice says, is designed to “address a core problem for which the BEAD Program was created to solve, namely, the lack of a sustainable business case to expand and improve broadband services to unserved and underserved areas.”

Fixed amount awards

States and territories will be able to fund new infrastructure projects with fixed amount awards. That is generally not allowed in programs that require cost sharing or matching funds, which BEAD does, or for awards exceeding $250,000.

But the Uniform Guidance allows for fixed amount awards if projects have “measurable goals and objectives” and adequate data is available for a “reasonable estimate of actual cost,” the policy notice says. The NTIA reasons BEAD rules will result in grant applications meeting both of these requirements and is allowing fixed amount awards for the program regardless of the value of the award and without further approval from the agency.

The waiver is contingent on states and territories making an effort to monitor the reasonableness of project costs, the policy notice notes.

Permissionless upgrades

Broadband providers will be able to upgrade equipment in BEAD-funded networks without getting approval from the NTIA.

Ten-year Federal Interest period

BEAD-funded infrastructure will be subject to a ten-year Federal Interest period starting when a given project is completed, meaning equipment “acquired or improved” with BEAD funds will for that time be “held in trust for the beneficiaries of the BEAD Program,” according to the policy notice.

One key difference

The NTIA highlighted in its statement a notable difference between its Uniform Guidance policy and the Treasury Department’s: states and territories will still be required to structure their agreements with broadband providers as “subgrants” under BEAD.

If the agreements were structured as contracts, for example, a smaller set of Uniform Guidance provisions would apply, the agency said.

“Ultimately, this approach will further the goal of ensuring everyone in America has access to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service,” the NTIA said in its statement.