The Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF) has approved $195.7 million for high speed Internet projects in Washington.
The CPF, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will provide funding to connect 33,000 homes and businesses in the Evergreen State.
The funding will be divided between three programs. The largest – at $118.5 million – will go to the Washington’s State Broadband Office (SBO) broadband grant program to provide connectivity to unconnected communities and to households with speeds below 25 Mbps upload and 3 Mbps download.
The second investment will be $43.7 million to the Public Works Board Broadband Program, which provides connectivity to distressed rural communities or those identified as native American.
Finally, $23.8 million will be invested in the Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) Rural Broadband Program to expand last-mile broadband to areas without reliable Internet.
The funding represents all of the state’s allocation under the CPF, according to a press release about the Washington CPF award.
So far, the CPF has awarded more than $7 billion for broadband, digital technology and multi-purpose community center projects in 45 states. Almost 2 million locations will be reached by the projects, the Treasury Department says. It eventually will award $10 billion.
A month ago, The Washington State Broadband Office tentatively awarded $121 million through the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Grant/ARPA Capital program. The state was awaiting release of the CPF funding by the U.S. Treasury.
While rules for the Washington program prohibit private companies from directly receiving funding, companies such as Declaration Networks Group, Consolidated Communications and Astound Broadband were slated to participate in funded projects as “committed service ISPs” for projects spearheaded by publicly owned or nonprofit organizations such as a public utility district, cooperative or tribe.
