Rural Utilities Service Administrator: Latest Round of ReConnect Apps Exceed Available Funding Threefold

The latest round of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) ReConnect rural broadband funding program received three times as many applications as there is funding for, said Andy Berke, administrator of USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, which is responsible for awarding the funding. Round 4, the latest USDA ReConnect round, has a budget of $1.15 billion to cover some of the costs of deploying service to unserved or underserved rural areas. USDA began accepting applications for funding in early September. The application deadline was November 2, 2022. Awards will be made in the form of grants, loans and grant/loan combinations. Funding recipients are required to deploy service supporting speeds of at least 100 Mbps symmetrically. Previous rounds of the program only required providers to deploy service at speeds of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. But according to Administrator Berke, most of the applications that USDA received in Round 3 were for 100/100 Mbps service. That should help minimize the need for future broadband investment in the areas selected to receive funding, Administrator Berke noted. It’s worth noting that although the budget for the current ReConnect funding round is considerably less than funding requested, USDA has an additional $750 million available that it plans to use for a future round, so those network operators that aren’t selected from this batch of applications may have another shot at obtaining funding.