The Oregon Broadband Office expects to begin accepting applications later this month for $149 million to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to locations lacking high-speed service.
The state received the funding from the federal Capital Projects Fund. The total funding was $156.7 million but a portion of it will go toward administrative costs.
Funding can be used to bring broadband to unserved and underserved locations, for middle mile networks and for line extension. Unserved locations are defined as those lacking 25/3 Mbps service. Underserved locations are those lacking service at speeds above 100/20 Mbps. Providers must deploy service at symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps.
Entities that can apply for funding include:
- Municipalities
- Private and for-profit entities
- Electric utilities
- Co-operatives
- Municipal affiliates
- Nonprofit organizations
Award decisions will be made based on a scoring system that gives points for the completeness of the application and for various infrastructure project parameters. There is also an option to get extra bonus points.
The infrastructure project parameters include deployment characteristics, service cost, and matching funds. Scoring for deployment characteristics is as follows:
- 10 points for every unserved location
- 5 points for every underserved location
Service cost scoring is based on:
- 5 points per location if 100/100 Mbps service costs $30 a month or less
- 2 points per location f 100/100 Mbps service costs between $30 and $50 a month
In addition, providers get 50 points for every percentage point of total project costs they will contribute.
After points are tallied, 5% of the total project score is added for any of the four following priorities that the project meets:
- Regional scale consideration
- Muni/ Co-op/ Non-profit affiliated
- High level of readiness
- Census block or tract with moderate to high social vulnerability
Additional information about the Oregon broadband awards program can be found at this link.
Updated to state that the scoring system gives 10 points for every unserved location and 5 points for every underserved location
