BROADBAND INITIATIVES PROGRAM
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ($2.4 Billion)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act expands Rural Utilities Services (RUS) authority to make loans and provides new authority to make grants for the purpose of facilitating broadband deployment in rural communities.
The RUS will award grants, loans, and loan/grant combinations for broadband infrastructure.
- BIP grants will be used to fund applications proposing to exclusively serve remote, unserved, rural areas.
- BIP loan and loan/grant combination funds will be used to provide funding to applications proposing to serve non-remote and underserved rural areas. Projects which include non-remote and remote areas will be funded by loans or loan/grant combinations.
The entire BIP budget includes:
- $1,200,000,000 for last mile projects
- Up to $400,000,000 for grants for Remote Area projects.
- Up to $800,000,000 for loans or loan/grant combinations for Non-Remote projects.
- Up to $800,000,000 is available for loans or loan/grant combinations for Middle Mile projects.
The size of the grant portion of any loan/grant combination award is determined by the applicant, but cannot exceed the amount of the loan portion of the award. RUS will favor applications that propose a higher percentage of loan funds.
For a complete description of the program,
visit http://broadbandusa.sc.egov.usda.gov/files/BIP%20Application%20Guide%20-%20FINAL%20071009%201500.pdf