American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

The Oregon Broadband Office is accepting applications for grant awards for the Broadband Deployment Program (BDP).

The Colorado Broadband Office announced additional grants using stimulus funding from the US Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF) program. As a result of the Advance-CPF Challenge Process, some of the previously awarded projects were reduced in size, leading to additional availability of funding. Subsequently, five new projects were awarded. The five new projects are:

Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) announced that the State of New Jersey has been approved for a total of nearly $180 million through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Project Fund (CPF) to support a wide range of infrastructure projects that promote public health and safety, digital connectivity, and equitable access to critical services. The CPF, a component of the American Rescue Plan, is designed to provide crucial funding for enhancing the quality of life, economic vitality, and resilience of communities across the United States.

Governor Tony Evers (D-WI), together with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC), announced the award of $43.2 million in grants funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to expand access to broadband across the state. The 30 projects awarded funding will expand high-speed internet access to approximately 16,000 residential and business locations in the state.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced the approval of $10 million for multi-purpose facilities in Tribal communities under the US Department of the Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF), part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

Consolidated Communications’ latest public-private broadband partnership news is a bit different from some of the other public-private partnerships we’ve seen since federal legislators began making funding available for broadband buildouts during the COVID pandemic. The deal, pending completion of a challenge process, involves the town of Francestown, New Hampshire and funding from the state’s Broadband Matching Grant Initiative (BMGI). That program provides matching funds for projects that otherwise would be too costly for the network operator to undertake.

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) at MassTech announced the launch of the Residential Internet Retrofit Program, a $22 million statewide initiative to equip public and affordable housing units across the state with high-speed internet for current and future residents.

The American Rescue Plan invested in all of America and provided direct relief to every town, city, county, Tribe and state for the first time in American history. The American Rescue Plan included major investments to critical areas, including $25 billion to jumpstart universal broadband access—including Broadband Connections for 18 million students through the Emergency Connectivity Fund so that schools and libraries could close the homework gap.

Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. ... Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. 

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring to bring internet service to four high priority areas of Westmoreland County (PA). Westmoreland County commissioners have partnered with Verizon to bring broadband service to 400 locations in parts of Derry, Fairfield and Ligonier townships that currently have no service.