posted on July 13, 2009 11:00
Special
Washington Update
July
2009
Application
Window for First Round of Broadband Stimulus Grants to Open July 14th
The
Departments of Agriculture and Commerce are set to begin accepting applications
on July 14th for more than half of the $7.2 billion in broadband funding
made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
However, the rules governing this first of a projected three rounds of funding
are extremely complicated and appear to target residential areas that are
unserved or underserved by broadband. Schools, libraries and health care
facilities – so-called “anchor institutions” on which ARRA appeared to place a
premium for broadband connectivity – received relatively short shrift in the
121 pages of funding program rules released on July 1st. As a result, according
to the New America Foundation, “many worthy applicants that expected to qualify
for infrastructure grants, based on the language of the ARRA, will not be able
to apply in this first round.
Last
April, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), along with the
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the National
Education Association (NEA) filed comments with the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Service (RUS) that
advocated strongly for K12 schools’ participation in the Broadband Technology
Opportunities Program (BTOP) and Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), both of
which were established under ARRA. In total, ARRA allocated $7.2 billion
in stimulus money to invest in broadband opportunities across the United
States; $2.5 billion for the BIP program governed by RUS and $4.7 billion for
the BTOP program governed by NTIA. In our comments, we made several
recommendations on issues regarding the BTOP program, including the eligibility
of schools to apply for BTOP funds, the role of states in awarding grants to
eligible entities, the role retail price should play in determining whether an
area is underserved or unserved, broadband mapping requirements, and the
expansion of computer center capacities.
READ MORE in myCoSN member only area.