Rural Utilities Service

Below we provide some important overview facts about RUS and the second funding round:

RUS will entertain Last Mile and Middle Mile Applications for rural areas. The definition of rural has not changed from Round One.
For Round Two, RUS allocated $2.2 Billion for funding opportunities. RUS can increase this amount to include unobligated funds from the first broadband stimulus round. In addition, for categories of funding that do not receive sufficient applications requesting the full amount of funds allocated, excess funds may be directed to another category of funding in RUS’s discretion. This is RUS’s final broadband stimulus funding round.
Some of the definitions have changed for this round, and RUS has made more specific the kinds of broadband projects it will fund. Projects to serve “remote” areas have been eliminated. In this round, RUS will fund applications for proposed service areas that are 75% or more rural, within which not more than 50 percent of the premises have High Speed Access (5 Mbps upstream and downstream combined).
Responding to the weight of comments filed in response to the last round, and the need for greater funding for rural projects, RUS has increased the amount of grant money available. Instead of 50/50 loan-grant combinations, RUS will grant awards containing 75% grants and 25% loans. This represents good progress.
RUS Applicants may request more than 75% grant by submitting a waiver request, which demonstrates the need for additional grant funding, up to 100%. Among the factors RUS will consider when granting a waiver include the distance of the proposed funded service areas from the closest non-rural area, whether the area is greater than 75% rural, the density of the proposed funded service area, the median household income, and the unemployment level of the proposed funded service area.
Note, however, that Applicants requesting larger loan components will be awarded more points and may have a greater likelihood of being funded.
RUS will not fund more than one project to serve any given geographic area, and there is a statutory prohibition against duplicative funding between NTIA and RUS. Accordingly, the existing Last Mile and Middle Mile service areas of RUS and NTIA awardees from Round One, and the service areas of former RUS borrowers, in which such borrowers provide broadband service, are not eligible. These areas can be found at www.broadbandUSA.gov. This makes it absolutely critical that Applicants know which areas have been funded by either RUS or NTIA prior to the opening of the funding window for Round 2 in mid February. The agencies are working toward this goal.
RUS has capped broadband funding for Last Mile projects to a maximum of $10,000 per premises passed, unless a waiver is requested.
RUS has streamlined its application process and will no longer process applications in two-steps. Instead, Applicants will be required to submit all the necessary documentation for an award by the application deadline, March 15th.
If RUS expects to have excess funding in the second round, it may permit Applicants to adjust applications for reconsideration that would not have been funded.
For this round, the mapping tool will still be used, but RUS has eliminated census block reporting, which created problems for Applicants in the last round. The RUS mapping tool already identifies the affected census blocks as you draw your service territory.
RUS created three new grant opportunities -- Satellite Projects, Technical Assistance Projects and Rural Library Broadband projects. 100% grants are available for these projects, but applications cannot be filed in this round. Some time after February 16, 2010, RUS will publish Requests for Proposals for these kinds of projects, including the funding allocations and filing windows. Please let us know if you require more information about these projects in the near term.