The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), more commonly known as the Stimulus Act, allocated $7.2 billion for broadband projects. Administrated by the US Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), the first round of funding was announced through a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) in July 2009.
On January 15, 2010 RUS and NTIA announced the final round of broadband stimulus funding. These NOFAs made $4.8 billion available to community organizations municipalities, and private entities with innovative broadband proposals in urban, rural, and non-rural areas.
The application window opened on February 16, 2010, the deadline is March 15th at 5:00 PM EST, and OTI published four application guides shortly after. Each guide outlines the eligibility requirements, important definitions, and a document checklist for preparing the application. Additionally, each guide suggests what skills sets a team will require to complete different components of the application and a sample timeline on how long the process will take. These are available under Round II documents below.
Each of the three Open Technology Initiative's application guides for NTIA's BTOP broadband stimulus programs has a fair market value of $3,995. In addition, Making Connections: The Role of Community Foundations in Broadband Projects and BTOP: Changes, Requirements and Critical Details for Final Broadband Stimulus Round have a fair market value of $4,995. The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative is donating these resources to interested organizations to assist with their BTOP applications and, according to NTIA guidelines, the value of these guides can be considered an in-kind match for consulting. These resources are available for download at below and please let us know if you plan to use these guides as an in-kind match for your application by emailing losey-at-newamerica-dot-net.
For the first round of NTIA and RUS grant opportunities, OTI prepared five application guides as well as a primer to funding opportunities and a strategic guidance document regarding BTOP infrastructure funding. These guides provide information on the application process, eligibility requirements, and for the Infrastructure, Public Computer Center, and Sustainable Broadband Adoption applications, sample timelines and a recommended breakdown of responsibilities in order complete the application. The applications have been updated as of July 23, 2009 to reflect the first round requirements from RUS and NTIA and are available from the links below:
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