White House Offers Guide to Accessing Broadband Billions

A closeup of U.S. money
(Image credit: Yuriy_Kulik/Getty Images)

The White House has put out a Technical Assistance Guide to the massive federal resources in the President's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that includes tens of billions for broadband deployment and access.

"In the past, too many communities have lacked the resources to apply for and deploy transformative infrastructure opportunities," the White House said. 

More than 90% of the billions in funding -- $65 billion of which is going to broadband infrastructure and uptake -- is going to non-federal partners so the administration is providing a list of federal programs that will help local communities "navigate, access, and deploy" infrastructure money.

Also: Charter Chief Says There Is No Labor Force for Fed-Funded Fiber Builds

Those programs include a State Digital Equity Planning and Capacity Grant and a Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, as well as a Middle Mile Grant Program to help reduce the cost of connecting to the internet "backbone." Under orders from Congress, the FCC is currently seeking input on how to define digital equity in terms of the allocation of all that broadband subsidy funding.

To check out all the  broadband programs, resources and contact info, the White House guide is here. ■

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.