Iowa to provide $200M for broadband expansion to underserved
Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds is making up to $200 million in American Rescue Plan funds available for broadband expansion in Iowa.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer will hold a pre-application conference at 2 p.m. CDT October 14 to discuss a high-level view of the program, including the requirements prescribed by this Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).
The purpose of this NOFA is to solicit applications from communications service providers for broadband infrastructure projects that will have the greatest overall effect of reducing or eliminating unserved or underserved areas in Iowa through the installation of broadband infrastructure.
Funds shall be distributed to applicants proposing projects that will facilitate broadband at 100/100 or faster, or 100/20 or faster in eligible service areas. The total amount of federal funds that may be requested may not exceed 60 percent of the actual or originally estimated (whichever is less) total project costs.
Applications must be designed to provide last-mile broadband service to homes, schools, and businesses in unserved and underserved areas. For wireless projects, the proposed wireless network backhaul must be “future proof,” meaning that the network backhaul can facilitate 100 mbps upload/100 mbps download or 100 mbps upload/20 mbps download, whichever is applicable, to every home, school, and business within the project area upon project completion.
Projects proposing to facilitate 100/20 broadband must be scalable to 100/100 within three years of the project completion date.
The window to submit applications opens October 25 and closes November 22.