§3154g High-speed broadband deployment initiative

Summary

The Secretary may give grants to eligible recipients to plan, build, extend, or improve high-speed broadband. Definitions: broadband project — planning, buying land, or building and improving facilities; eligible recipient — includes public-private partnerships and consortia formed between 1 or more eligible recipients and 1 or more for-profit organizations; high-speed broadband — 2-way data transmission with enough downstream and upstream speed as the Secretary decides. When people apply, the Secretary must consider geographic diversity and underserved markets and must ask the Federal Communications Commission, the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Regional Commission for data on existing service in the area and service being built by other federal programs. If a project is done by a public-private partnership or consortium, property bought or improved with grant money must be held by a public partner or eligible nonprofit for the useful life of the project, and then title can transfer to a member under rules the Secretary creates. No one can be barred from competing to provide goods or services just because they helped design the project or write specs. The Secretary can allow a grantee to give a third party an option to buy project property, but the option can only be used after the Federal interest is released; giving or using that option is not a redistribution of grant funds under section 3154c. When counting the non-Federal share of project costs, the Secretary can credit the present value of approved contributions over the project’s useful life and may require proof of their value and commitment.