For potential broadband stimulus applicants, about 90 percent of what must be done now is blocking and tackling, possibly 10 percent is about inspiration. The reason is simply that with the notice of funding availability now out, applicants have until Aug. 14, 2009 to get their completed applications submitted.
NTIA applications must be screened for completeness first, say attorneys at DowLohnes. And since incomplete applications automatically get rejected, applicants now must "write to the regs," crafting responses that address as many of the identified objectives as possible while supplying all the required supporting documentation. That's a tedious, labor-intensive process, but essential.
Incomplete proposals will not be accepted, and there is no chance to add missing material later. "Write to the grant standard" is good advice.
Full compliance with the minimum requirements is required, but most observers think applicants will receive higher review scores if minimums are exceeded. Broadband is defined as a minimum of 768 kbps downstream, but applicants will get higher scores by proposing solutions running faster than that, for example.
In addition, applicants must document how their proposals meet underserved or unserved definitions. Projects serving rural areas must be submitted to the RUS. Proposals that are not accepted by RUS can be referred to the NTIA, but all proposals must meet all minimum NTIA criteria as well.
"Unserved" areas are defined as including at least one full census block, where at least 90 percent of households do not have access to terrestrial broadband.
"Underserved" areas are defined as including at least one full census block, where no more than 50 percent of the households have access to terrestrial broadband, or no provider advertises speeds of 3 Mbps or more or the rate of subscribership is 40 percent or less. Applicants can qualify on any single one of these criteria.
NTIA infrastructure projects will have trouble getting funded if the areas in which the projects are proposed do not meet the minimum criteria for "underserved" areas, DowLohnes says .
The RUS Broadband Initiatives Program is awarding $1.2 billion for last-mile facilities, $400 million for remote areas, $800 million for middle-mile facilities and $325 million for a national reserve. Last mile facilities serve end users. Middle mile facilities are those that connect end user facilities to the Internet.
"Innovative" proposals will score higher, and if projects are scalable and can be replicated elsewhere, that's helpful. State support is important, so letters of support are helpful.
Though there is a minimum match of 20 percent of project costs, but the higher the match, the more favorably any proposal likely will be viewed. Reviewers also are looking at job creation, or jobs saved.
NTIA scoring will have more variables while RUS scoring is more rigid. The highest-scoring applications in both pools move to step two, where state governors have a 20-day opportunity to rank order projects.
The final decision is by NTIA or RUS, but the state level review will be important. Then loan documents or grant award documents will have to be completed.
Though the actual form hasn't been released, about $2.8 billion in last-mile infrastructure funds will be awarded in the first round of grants and loans under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act "broadband stimulus" programs.
In addition to $1.2 billion for last-mile facilities, some $50 million is set aside for public computing and $150 million is available for projects dealing with sustainable adoption as part of NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
Gary Kim (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek
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