US Commerce Dept. Awards $930M for High-Speed Internet Projects

Competition was heavy for the grants, with 260 applications seeking a total of $7.5 billion.

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In federal agencies’ continuing rollout of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds, the U.S. Commerce Dept. has awarded $930 million in grants to increase high-speed internet coverage in rural and other areas where service is weak.

The 35 grants, which Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on June 16, will help finance construction of “middle mile” infrastructure. Projects to be funded will be in more than 350 counties in 35 states and Puerto Rico.

In all, the infrastructure funding law includes $65 billion to increase high-speed internet service around the country.

Grant recipients, which include states, tribes, utility companies, telecommunications firms and nonprofit organizations, will contribute $848.5 million in matching funds.

View a listing of grant recipients here.

“This program will help us connect communities across the country to regional and national networks that provide quality, affordable high-speed Internet access," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in a statement.

As with competitive grants administered by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation under the law, demand for Commerce’s middle mile internet dollars greatly exceeded the funding amount available.

The department said it received more than 260 applications seeking a total of $7.5 billion.

Its grants average at $26.6 million, with the largest of $88.9 million awarded to QSH Parent Holdco LLC for the “Nome to Homer Express Route” in Alaska that has a total project cost of $150.8 million, according to the agency. About 55% of the project area is classified as unserved.

The second-largest grant is $73 million to the California Dept. of Technology for a $187.6-million project that involves building 680 miles of middle-mile fiber across 37 spurs in the statewide middle-mile network.

Among other large grants in the new round is $61.3 million to the Peninsula Fiber Network LLC in Michigan for a project totaling $87.5 million that includes two routes across Lake Michigan. Plans call for installing about 535 route miles linking the state’s Upper Peninsula to the lower one.

Zayo LLC, Boulder, Colo., is receiving a $55.1-million grant for a project to build a 644-mile underground middle-mile route serving rural areas in West Texas from Dallas to El Paso. The overall project cost is $91.9 million. The company also received two other middle mile grants in the new round.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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