Handicapping NOFA 2

[Commentay] It is wise that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural utilities Service have each issued their own broadband stimulus grant rules. NTIA is addressing middle mile primarily and this makes sense because it gives NTIA a bigger bang for their buck, allowing them to bring broadband to large geographical areas through each award. RUS, mercifully, has eliminated the "remote, non-remote" qualifications combined with different (and confusing) grant versus loan options that have driven people absolutely crazy. Now it's a straight up 75/25 grant-to-loan ratio for all projects. The final definition of rural is what it has been before at RUS in terms of population size and proximity to big cities. The other thing that's good for RUS is their focus on last mile projects.

Who's looking good with these new rules in place?

1) Network neutrality and open access for NTIA-funded projects -- but not in RUS projects.

2) RUS has increased minimum broadband speeds to 5 Mbps combined, so your up and down in whatever combination of speeds need to equal 5Mbps; NTIA retains 768 Kbps down, 200 Kbps up.

3) Public Private Partnerships are highly valued AND prioritized by NTIA.

4) Since NTIA is removing the requirement that infrastructure projects must be located in unserved or underserved areas, cities can play.

5) Incumbent challenges are still a reality, however incumbents have to provide 7 types of data, including speeds, prices and numbers of subscribers and the details of their challenge will be made public.

6) Round 1 winners can go back to the pot to get more money to connect libraries and write economic development strategy plans.