The Iowa Department of Management has released a new broadband grant opportunity for internet service providers. A total of $400 million is available through the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program with funding from the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment fund administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. This round of grant funds will be used to incentivize broadband infrastructure build-out to reach unserved and underserved locations throughout the state. The NTIA defines unserved as any broadband serviceable location having access to internet speed of less than 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload (25/3), and underserved locations as having access to internet speeds of 25/3 mbps but less than 100/20 mbps. This is the ninth notice of funding availability for Iowa. Through the eight previous grant opportunities, approximately $500 million in state and federal funding has been awarded to bring broadband service to over 100,000 homes, schools and businesses in Iowa, a news release said. The total new broadband investment between public and private money is over $1 billion. For more information on the latest round of broadband grant funding, click here.
