Why ReConnect Now?

The US Department of Agriculture just announced a new round of ReConnect grants. These are grants that can only be used to serve the most rural places in the country, and one of the qualifications is the distance between the grant market and the nearest towns. The homes served by the grants must not have any broadband available at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. A grantee must serve every home in a grant area. It’s not going to be easy to find a grant area that is rural and that has no homes where internet service providers claim the capability to deliver speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. A few other consultants I’ve talked to are wondering if there will be enough markets that can meet the ReConnect grant parameters. But the oddest thing about these grants is the timing. This grant program was announced just as states are gearing up to award the much larger BEAD grants. Having both grant programs running concurrently is going to cause all sorts of problems for both ISPs and State Broadband Offices. In 2022 the Biden administration directed the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the USDA to coordinate everything associated with federal funding for broadband. It’s clear that the FCC and USDA ignored that directive to coordinate grants and have done the opposite..