On Friday, Jan. 15, RUS and NTIA each released separate Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs) for the final round of the ARRA Broadband Stimulus program.  The NOFAs establish the criteria and priorities for awarding $2.2 billion in RUS funds and $2.6 billion in NTIA funding.  The application window opens on Feb. 15 and will remain open until March 15.  All stimulus funds, grants and loans, will be awarded prior to Sept. 30.  The actual applications or application guidelines are not yet posted on the BroadbandUSA website.

Both NOFAs include significant changes from the rules governing the first round of funding applications.  One of these changes is that applicants will no longer be able to submit a joint application for both the RUS BIP and the NTIA BTOP.  In this round, the eligibility criteria for the two programs are no longer similar, and focus on different priorities; i.e., the BIP focuses primarily on last-mile projects, and the BTOP on middle-mile.  Because there is only minimum overlap in some middle-mile and last-mile projects, there is generally no need for joint applications.

To provide clients a more in-depth review of these changes, as well as the details in the recent NOFAs that could be critical to companies that intend to apply for funding, JSI held a webinar Monday, Jan. 25.  In the webinar, JSI addressed more fully the criteria for the application funding, eligibility for the BIP compared to BTOP, and review NECA’s process to handle grant funding.

If you were not able to take part in the webinar on Jan. 25, please contact Barbara Thomas (bthomas@jsitel.com) in JSI's Maryland office, at 301-459-7590 to learn how to access a recorded copy of the webinar.