The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) is winding towards a close, according to the latest quarterly update from NTIA, which highlights broadband stimulus program results. The report dated October 2015 but only released publicly last week, provides a summary of what the BTOP program had accomplished as of June 2015.
In 2009 and 2010, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which administered the BTOP program, awarded approximately $4 billion to 233 BTOP projects. Those projects focused on four areas:
- $3.5 billion to 123 infrastructure projects (primarily middle-mile)
- $251 million to 44 sustainable broadband adoption (SBA) programs
- $201 million to 66 public computing center (PCC) projects
The NTIA also was responsible for awarding $293 million to 56 state broadband initiative (SBI) projects, which were focused on collecting information for the National Broadband Map.
Broadband Stimulus Program Results
As of June 2015, all but 12 BTOP projects and 4 SBI projects had been closed out.
The NTIA highlights key broadband stimulus program results to date:
- 114,697 miles of infrastructure have been deployed or upgraded
- Approximately 25,678 community anchor institutions have been connected to broadband
- The SBA projects generated a total of 671,585 new subscribers
Additional broadband stimulus projects, focused primarily on last-mile network infrastructure, were administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service.
