The United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (USDA RUS) is accepting applications for another round of loans for the Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program. This program provides loans of up to $20 million for rural connectivity. The window to apply opened September 1, and the deadline is September 30, 2017.
The USDA RUS has at least $60 million available this funding cycle for this program. All loans will be between $100,000 and $20 million. The program will only consider funding projects that offer speeds of at least 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and three Mbps upload.
For this program, the USDA RUS focuses on completely rural communities where at least 15 percent of households do not have high-speed internet access. To be eligible, these rural areas cannot have more than two incumbent providers or have previously received USDA RUS funding.
Although the program is specific to rural communities, most organizations are eligible to apply, including tribal governments, local governments, cooperatives, and corporations. No partnerships and no individuals may apply for funding, however, as the loans must go only to organizations.
This is only one of the broadband programs that the USDA RUS manages. The agency also handles the Community Connect Grants and the Distance Learning & Telemedicine Program. The report “Broadband Loan and Grant Programs in USDA’s Rural Utilities Service” from the Congressional Research Service describes these programs in more detail.
September 14, 2017
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