NTIA Releases Details of Federal Funding for State Broadband Maps and Planning

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released new information about its stimulus-funded grant program for state-based broadband mapping and planning initiatives. The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program will provide approximately $240 million in grants to assist states or their designees to develop state-specific data on broadband deployment and adoption. The competitive, merit-based awards will require funding matches with applications due by August 14.

The program was introduced as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Broadband Data Improvement Act. By funding various statewide initiatives, NTIA plans to combine the resulting data with public information to create a national broadband map. The Recovery Act requires that such a map be publicly-available by February of next year. This map will help inform future research and policy decisions to expand high-speed internet access.

In addition to maps, the state grants also will provide support to efforts to identify barriers to broadband adoption and will fund the creation of local technology planning teams. Each state only may have one entity that receives funding through the program. At least 20 percent of the project costs must be funded by sources other than the federal government. If no applicant in a particular state meets the program standards, NTIA will perform the data collection on its own.

More information about the State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program is available at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/.

NTIA expects the state grants and the broadband provisions of the stimulus to have a significant economic impact. In February, NTIA released a paper by Raul Katz and Stephan Suter that analyzed the likely economic benefits of the federal investment. The Recovery Act should create approximately 128,000 jobs in network construction over the next four years and up to 270,000 additional jobs related to the expansion of broadband networks, according to the study. The study concluded that in order to maximize the number of new jobs created through broadband programs, state and local governments should align their broadband initiatives with job creation and retention programs.

Download "Estimating the Economic Impact of the Broadband Stimulus Plan" at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/comments/1EA7.pdf.

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Vol. 14, Issue 18