ReConnect3 Final Results: The USDA Gets the Job Done

It was worth the wait. The third round of the US Department of Agriculture's ReConnect Loan and Grant Program closed in 2022, after awarding $759 million in rural broadband grants and loans to 49 deployers, mostly small local exchange carriers (LECs). The average cost of passing each home, farm, other business, or school was just over $4,500, compared to $4,100 in 2019 and almost $6,000 in 2020. All awardees in this round, and almost all in previous rounds, told USDA they were deploying fiber to the premises. USDA awards typically cover as much as 80 percent of the total deployment cost. All relevant deployers (some tribal winners are not eligible) pledged to comply with Federal Communications Commission programs subsidizing low-income families, such as the old Lifeline program and the $30 per month subsidy authorized in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Doing so improved their USDA grant application scoring. ReConnect3 loans and grants are expected to pass 156,601 dwelling units and 11,811 businesses, farms, and schools with fiber – a total of about 168,000 premises. This is in line with earlier rounds, strongly suggesting that the need is vast and federal money – US  taxpayer money – is not being wasted by chasing ever more problematic projects.