The Port Of Whitman County is one of several rural Washington communities set to nab another major infusion of broadband grants courtesy of federal Covid disaster relief. A fresh infusion of $1.1 million announced last week will help the County expand a five city (Palouse, Garfield, Oakesdale, Tekoa and Rosalia) fiber expansion project to 104 unserved homes.

In partnership with Ziply Fiber, the Port will bring fiber connectivity to those homes that were not included in the first phase of the project. According to city officials, construction will begin in the fall 2023 and be complete by spring 2024.

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It’s part of a broader $121 million in new broadband grant awards doled out by the Washington State Broadband Office to expand access to affordable broadband service across traditionally underserved portions of the state. All told, the new awards will be used to fund more than 19 different projects, bringing improved broadband access to nearly 15,000 state residents.

“These grants will provide initial service availability to 14,794 end users located across the state, in communities as diverse as the San Juan Islands, Kittitas County and the Spokane reservation,” Washington Broadband Office Director Mark Vasconi said of the latest round of funding.

The U.S. Treasury Department recently awarded more than $740 million in new American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding to the states of California and Pennsylvania, providing a major boon to both states’ efforts to expand access to affordable broadband.

The Treasury awarded $540.2 million for high-speed Internet expansion projects in California under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF). According to the announcement, the funds will be used to connect 127,000 homes and businesses across California as part of the state’s ongoing “California Comeback Plan.”

As part of that effort, California leaders say they’ll spend $7 billion on expanding broadband access over the next three years, with $4 billion of that to be used for constructing a statewide middle-mile, open access fiber network the state hopes will boost broadband competition and drive down broadband access costs statewide.

To manage federal grant funds, California created its Last Mile Broadband Expansion grant program, which was designed to provide Internet access to areas of the state currently lacking access to reliable, affordable broadband at the FCC’s increasingly dated definition of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream, 3 Mbps upstream.

“The pandemic upended life as we knew it and exposed the stark inequity in access to affordable and reliable high-speed internet in communities across the country, including rural, Tribal, and other underrepresented communities,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

“This funding is a key piece of the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic investments to increase access to high-speed internet for millions of Americans and provide more opportunities to fully participate and compete in the 21st century economy,” Adeyemo added.  

City Cast Las Vegas recently aired back-to-back podcast episodes about Internet access in the region, "Why Does Our Internet Suck?" followed by "Who Can Fix Our Internet?" As an organization that both produces stories like that as well as stars on them, as our own Sean Gonsalves did in the first episode, we wanted to share why we think these are well done and should serve as good lessons for others covering these issues.

The interviewer, Dayvid Figler, is on point with questions and the show offers a concise description of the challenge and potential solutions. It turns out that Dayvid also worked as a trial lawyer though, so perhaps not many reporters will be able to simply summon that level of command to shape the conversation. Nonetheless, these two shows are wonderfully informative.

The first episode sets up the second, which is where I want to spend more time. Dayvid's questions help Sean explain what broadband is and why some neighborhoods are left behind - one of the more common questions we see on this subject. They discussed who owns existing networks and what fiber is and why we should care.

Dayvid lays the groundwork for the second show by asking why competition hasn't solved the problem of why people are frustrated with their Internet service and Sean explains that while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance believes communities need to take action to improve their service.

The second episode features Brian Mitchell, Director of the Nevada State Office of Science and Innovation. No relation to me, Christopher Mitchell, or my boss, Stacy Mitchell (none of us are related - there are just a lot of Mitchells, ok?).

The application deadline for the Capital Projects Fund, which will direct $100 million in federal funding to Tribal governments to build broadband infrastructure, has been extended to August 15th, 2022. It's a relateively simple application, offering $167,000 in grant funds to each Tribal government.

The fund explicitly emphasizes capital outlay for new infrastructure projects. From the Department of Treasury, uses include:

Capital assets designed to directly enable work, education, and health monitoring.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need that resulted from or was made apparent or exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need of the community to be served by it.

Examples of projects provided by the Treasury include:

Purchasing digital connectivity devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, or tablets, to facilitate internet access

Purchasing digital connectivity technologies, such as public Wi-Fi, to facilitate internet access

Supplementing another federal government broadband program (e.g., Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, NTIA Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, or other funds) that meet minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Installing or enhancing broadband infrastructure to serve communities by meeting minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Constructing or improving buildings, such as multi-purpose community centers, that are designed to jointly enable work, education, and health monitoring

It's worth pointing out, via the Treasury guidance page, that "as of April 4, 2022, applicants are required to provide a Universal Entity ID (UEID) number when applying for CPF funds, and will no longer need to provide a DUNS number." More instructions here.

Additional resources:

The application deadline for the Capital Projects Fund, which will direct $100 million in federal funding to Tribal governments to build broadband infrastructure, has been extended to August 15th, 2022. It's a relateively simple application, offering $167,000 in grant funds to each Tribal government.

The fund explicitly emphasizes capital outlay for new infrastructure projects. From the Department of Treasury, uses include:

Capital assets designed to directly enable work, education, and health monitoring.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need that resulted from or was made apparent or exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need of the community to be served by it.

Examples of projects provided by the Treasury include:

Purchasing digital connectivity devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, or tablets, to facilitate internet access

Purchasing digital connectivity technologies, such as public Wi-Fi, to facilitate internet access

Supplementing another federal government broadband program (e.g., Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, NTIA Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, or other funds) that meet minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Installing or enhancing broadband infrastructure to serve communities by meeting minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Constructing or improving buildings, such as multi-purpose community centers, that are designed to jointly enable work, education, and health monitoring

It's worth pointing out, via the Treasury guidance page, that "as of April 4, 2022, applicants are required to provide a Universal Entity ID (UEID) number when applying for CPF funds, and will no longer need to provide a DUNS number." More instructions here.

Additional resources:

This morning, the Department of Treasury announced the first round of Capital Projects Fund (CPF) awards to states putting together portfolios to deploy new infrastructure to unserved households. Across Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, and West Virginia, 200,000 locations will see new deployments capable of 100/100 Mbps at a total cost of almost $583 million. 

It’s a welcome announcement that should assemble a wide range of solutions and result in much better connections for more than half a million people across the country long left behind by policy and infrastructure solutions so far. It also marks those states which have been more proactive in getting their ducks in a row as early as possible, and opening a dialogue with Treasury about how to use the CPF funds expeditiously to solve remote work, healthcare, and education in the face of the ongoing publish health crisis.

The Basics

The CPF is made up of $10 billion, and part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act passed last year. It complements the $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) (which can be used for water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure) as well as the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). New infrastructure must be capable of delivering symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps. There are no local matches required (though most states are and will likely institute some form of requirement).