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Capital Projects Fund (CPF) Grant
The U.S. Department of the Treasury approved the CBO’s plan to spend $171 million from the American Rescue Plan's Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund to connect more Colorado households to high-speed internet. The state will use CPF funding to connect 18,000 unserved households, fund fiber infrastructure projects to prepare for future internet needs and support Colorado communities with the most urgent broadband needs. CPF funding will be administered to subgrantee recipients through the Advance Colorado Broadband grant program in 2023. Read the press release.
Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) & Digital Equity (DE) Planning Grants
The National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) announced Colorado will receive nearly $5 million to prepare for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding program, which will provide Colorado $400 - $700 million for broadband in 2024. Read the full press release.
In addition to the nearly $5 million planning grant, Colorado’s Office of the Future Work (OFOW) will receive more than $897,000 to create Colorado’s Digital Equity (DE) Plan and launch the Digital Navigator Program. Colorado’s Office of eHealth Innovation (OeHI), under the office of the Lieutenant Governor, will work with OFOW to disburse funding from the Digital Equity Act, a component of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, that will focus on making internet access affordable and equitable. They will deliver a Digital Equity plan in 2024.
We are excited to work with our agency partners to ensure Colorado realizes maximum benefit from these historic investments in broadband!
Broadband Ready Community Checklist
To help local communities understand their role and discover ways they can plan and execute broadband projects, CBO developed the Broadband Ready Community Checklist – a voluntary set of tasks that will help local communities and their partners in this task (to be posted to the website soon). This list was developed through extensive community engagement with local communities, counties, special districts, internet service providers (ISPs), utilities, community members and other state agencies. CBO also researched several existing toolkits, checklists and policies for development of this checklist.
Broadband Ready Certified Community
Communities that complete the tasks listed in the Broadband Ready Community Checklist are eligible to be designated as a Broadband Ready Certified Community by the CBO. We would like to encourage as many communities as possible to become Broadband Ready before federal grant funding becomes available. While the Broadband Ready Certified Community designation does not guarantee state and federal broadband funding, it will identify the community as a willing partner that has minimized barriers to broadband infrastructure deployment. All communities with this designation will be featured on CBO's website. Please note that utilization of the Checklist is voluntary and a Broadband Ready Certified Community designation is not required to receive funding via the Advance Colorado Broadband program.
Details of the Broadband Ready Community Program will be presented at the Advance Industry Roundtable on Jan. 17 and the Advance Community Leader Roundtable on Jan. 18.
The National Telecommunications Information Association (NTIA) announced broadband grant awards for two Colorado-based tribes, the Ute Mountain Ute (UMU) and Southern Ute Indian Tribe (SUIT). NTIA’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) will give the UMU, located in southern Colorado and Utah, more than $22 million. The project will install two middle-mile routes across non-contiguous tribal lands in two states, and will build a last-mile fiber infrastructure that connects approximately 817 unserved Native American households, 7 unserved Tribal businesses, and 36 unserved community anchor institutions. Read the NTIA's Ute Mountain Ute TBCP press release for more information.
SUIT, located in southern Colorado, will receive more than $43 million from the TBCP. SUIT’s broadband infrastructure project proposes to install fiber directly connecting 1,798 unserved Native American households, 14 businesses, and 16 anchor institutions with service of at least 250 Mbps symmetrical. Read the NTIA's Southern Ute Indian Tribe TBCP press release for more information.
The CBO celebrates the announcement of these awards that will connect more tribal homes to give their communities equitable opportunities for work, school, healthcare, government services and connection to loved ones.
On November 18, 2022, the FCC announced the publication of the new National Broadband Map, which displays location-level information on fixed and mobile broadband availability data submitted by internet service providers through the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection (BDC).
The new maps will serve as a basis for the NTIA to allocate $42.5 billion in BEAD funding to states and territories next summer. The CBO is working to ensure that the data accurately represents locations and services in Colorado in order to receive a fair allocation of BEAD funding.
Read more about the new FCC Map
On Dec. 7, the CBO Data Team held a webinar on Understanding the FCC Map and Challenge Processes. This webinar provides a deeper dive into FCC Map and Challenge Process for stakeholders interested in using the data or participating in the challenge process. The recording and slides are posted on our website for those who were unable to attend.
On Dec. 9, BDB staff hosted an application webinar prior to the Jan. 15, 2023 application deadline where we reviewed and summarized changes to the application submission and review process.
Winter 2023 Grant Cycle Introduction Webinar slides and recording are available here.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the updated policies before submitting an application. The most current application became available upon the conclusion of the webinar and can be found here. For more application information, please visit our website.
The CBO is dedicated to engaging with community leaders and stakeholders across Colorado to learn more about local broadband needs. To request the attendance of a CBO staff member at your meeting or event, please email us at oit_broadband@state.co.us or visit our website to contact your region’s project manager.
 Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar with CBO staff members
CBO and The City of Pueblo
CBO traveled to the city of Pueblo on Nov. 17th at the Pueblo Museum to talk about broadband accessibility, affordability and equity. We would like to thank everyone who attended the meeting - residents, government officials, providers, advocacy and labor organizations- as well as Pueblo Mayor, Nick Gradisar.
CBO & OATS Supporting with ACP Application
Delia Sánchez, our Community Engagement Specialist, was invited to a hands-on workshop at the Senior Planet Center in Denver on Dec. 9 to help the elder community apply for ACP and verify eligibility. Thank you to all who attended!
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