The Oklahoma Broadband Office has opened funding for the Capital Projects Fund 2.0, which will aim to serve 766 locations that remain unserved.
The window began yesterday and will run through November 17, when the application portal will close.
The Oklahoma funding notice says eligible applicants are co-operatives, electric utilities, and other entities that build or operate broadband networks, partnerships and consortium. Applicants must plan to serve all locations.
An NRTC funding alert about the Oklahoma broadband funds says that there is no maximum award and that broadband service providers should submit their “best and final offer.” It also lists eligible costs:
- Grant preparation costs
- Cost of repair, rehabilitation, construction, improvement and acquisition of real property, equipment and facilities
- Cost of long-term leases necessary to provide service
- Personnel costs
- Costs necessary to operationalize and put the capital assets to full use, including broadband adoption and digital literacy efforts
- Expenses related to compliance reporting and performance management
The program is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Last May, more than $53 million in middle-mile broadband expansion grants were recommended for approval by the Oklahoma Broadband Governing Board. Those projects were recommended for approval by the Grants Review Committee and were funded by the American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
Not all the action in Oklahoma deals with government-backed programs. In July, Hilliary Communications agreed to acquire TDS Telecom’s network in the Sooner State. The deal set up the provider to add almost 35,000 addresses to its footprint. Many of these locations are in rural locations in the state.
Additional information about Oklahoma broadband, including state funding resources, BEAD news, awards made, state-specific coverage, and more may be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
NRTC owns Pivot Group, which publishes Telecompetitor.
