Notice of Funding Opportunity
Washington State Broadband Office Infrastructure Acceleration grant application open now
The Washington State Broadband Office will award approximately $266 million in broadband infrastructure grants in at least two funding rounds planned for October 2021 and April 2022. The current funding round will have approximately $135 million in federal funds available with the remainder available in April 2022.
Entities eligible to apply:
- Local governments, including public ports and public utility districts
- Federally recognized Tribes
- Nonprofit organizations
- Nonprofit cooperative organizations
- Multiparty entities that consist of at least one public partner
Eligible projects will construct broadband infrastructure designed to deliver broadband service, as part of a contiguous network, that:
-
at minimum, delivers transmission speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 100 megabits per second upload (100/100 Mbps) unless impracticable due to geography, topography or financial cost in which case speeds of 100/20 Mbps are acceptable if scalable to 100/100 Mbps, and
- is deployed in unserved areas, defined as areas lacking access to reliable (wireline connection) service at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.
Projects will be prioritized based on competitive criteria including, but not limited to:
- Project readiness
- Service to underserved areas that lack access to reliable speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps
- Regional collaboration
- Last mile connections
- Affordability for end-users
- Digital equity considerations on access, affordability and digital literacy
Grant awards are expected to range from $1 million to $25 million per project.
Pre-application due: Oct. 18, 2021
By Nov. 8, 2021, qualified projects will be notified and invited to complete the full application, due by Nov. 29, 2021.
Contact: Tammy Mastro at wsbo@commerce.wa.gov
Full details
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