Adelstein Calls Next Funding Round the Super Bowl
Applicants for RUS broadband money who lost in the first funding round should try again in the second, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said at the winter conference of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Adelstein announced $309 million in broadband grants, including one to OPASTCO member TDS Telecom’s Butler Telephone Co. He assured attendees that the RUS will soon spell out completely who succeeded and who fell short in the first round. Industry officials have expressed concern about the RUS’ and the NTIA’s slow pace in making awards (CD Jan 22 p1).
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“After gearing up for a while, our grant-making machine is now moving forward in high gear,” Adelstein said. “Although today’s $309 million announcement is larger than all the other broadband grants awarded so far by both us and NTIA combined, we have only just begun to announce awards. RUS is moving forward on announcing more round one funding awards soon, which will be done on a rolling basis. … As we get closer to finalizing the list, we are also beginning to let people know who will not be receiving funding in the first round. We have just begun sending out a large number of letters notifying applicants who were not eligible in round one, so that they can begin to get their new applications together for round two.” Letters will be sent to all applicants next week, he said.
The administration made two big changes in the program for round two, Adelstein said. It dropped the category of “remote” projects, 50 miles from a town and eligible for 100 percent funding. “Unfortunately, a large number of these were in fact closer than 50 miles to a town, so they were deemed ineligible,” he said. “We heard of a lot of complaints from many of you about that ‘remote’ definition. You will be pleased to know that in this next round of funding, we heard you loud and clear. Yes, we have eliminated the eligibility category of ‘remote’ entirely. But we have still kept our focus on the most rural areas of the country.”
The RUS’ funding formula also has changed, Adelstein said. In round two, all applicants are eligible for a 75 percent grant and 25 percent loan. In round one, projects not classified as remote could get only awards split evenly between grants and loans. “A large number of applicants applied for more than the allowed 50 percent grant amount and are being denied for that reason,” he said.
“This second round is the big one, folks,” Adelstein said. “This is the Super Bowl of broadband stimulus funding.”
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called for overhaul of the Universal Service Fund, also speaking to the conference. As chair of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, she said her “passion is to ensure that broadband is truly accessible to all U.S. consumers … and connectivity should not be based upon where a person lives or how much money they make.” Clyburn acknowledged a need to change USF and said it should be “recalibrated to support both voice and broadband services.”
Clyburn also proposed that the commission set up a separate broadband fund that all service providers will contribute to. Providers serving high-cost areas “should have access to the funds in order to deploy and offer affordable broadband service,” she said. Money from the Lifeline program, which provides discounts on telephone service, should be used for broadband service, she said. “For low-income consumers who already qualify for the Lifeline program, broadband, quite frankly, is a luxury that they largely are doing without.” She said an overhaul of the intercarrier compensation system “should include harmonizing interstate and intrastate interconnection rates, and those rates should be just and reasonable and reflect the actual costs to use the networks.”