NTIA, RUS Wrapping Up First-Round Broadband Award Notices
Storms that closed down the federal government this month delayed the Rural Utilities Service a week in telling round-one broadband-stimulus applicants about awards, said Ken Kuchno, the director of the agency’s broadband program. But the weather didn’t slow the agency’s review work, he said at an Federal Communications Bar Association lunch Friday. “Everybody should know within hopefully a week, no later than beginning of the week after next exactly where everything stands,” he said. The NTIA also plans to finish sending notifications soon, said John Morabito, a senior policy adviser for the agency’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
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Members of the Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee complained last month about the NTIA’s pace in releasing broadband-stimulus money (CD Jan 29 p1). Further Hill oversight hearings on the $7.2 billion stimulus are expected soon.
The RUS has announced about 30 awards totaling $620 million to $630 million and hopes to finish notifying round one applicants “very quickly,” Kuchno said. The agency understands with the round two “application window opening up this week and only being open another three or four weeks that we need to notify everybody as to what the status of their round one applications are.” The RUS has mailed notices to most applicants, he said. “A bunch went out yesterday” and “more will go out today.” The agency plans to send e-mails to applicants it didn’t send letters to on Friday, Kuchno said. The e-mails won’t contain the detailed explanation that’s in the letters, but recipients will get the letters later, he said.
The NTIA has announced 29 awards covering 21 states and totaling about $585 million, and the agency plans “to continue announcing awards over the next month or so,” said Morabito. It has told more than 1,700 applicants that they didn’t win first-round awards, he said. “Those letters are going out regularly as well, and we hope to complete all of this very soon.” Applicants that haven’t been notified may contact their program officers, he said. The agencies also plan to post soon a list of unresolved applications, he said.
The agencies have made no decision on a petition to extend the round-two application deadline to April 30, officials said. It came from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (CD Feb 17 p11). The RUS is still treating March 15 as the deadline, Kuchno said. “Anything can change, especially with this program. But today our understanding is March 15 is the deadline.” The agencies plan to announce round-two awards in late July or early August, he said.
First-round award announcements continued to dribble out of the agencies last week. Friday, NTIA announced an $11.9 million grant for a project in DeKalb County, Ill., “to help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth, create jobs, and improve education and health care.” The day before, NTIA announced 10 grant awards totaling $357 million (CD Feb 19 p9).
Meanwhile, Senate Small Business Committee Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La., released two guides for small businesses seeking to apply to the stimulus agencies for round-two funds. “Increasing access to broadband Internet service will help to bridge the technological divide between rural businesses and competing companies that have long benefitted from access to high-speed Internet service,” Landrieu said. “I encourage small business owners to apply for these competitive grants. This is an historic opportunity to both improve our communities and U.S. competitiveness.”