Broadband Mapping Grants to Require Confidentiality, Matching Funds
NTIA will begin on July 14 reviewing and evaluating grant applications for the $350 million set aside for broadband mapping, the agency said in a notice of funds availability released Wednesday. The mapping requirements, known as the Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA), are to help develop a national broadband map by 2011 and were outlined in a NOFA separate from that detailing the $7.2 billion broadband program application.
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The agency expects total initial grant awards to range between $2.4 and $4.3 million per state, with up to $500,000 per grant going to the planning of mapping projects, according to the NOFA. None of the BDIA money will go toward construction, it said. Unlike the applications for the larger broadband stimulus, which will be assessed by NTIA and RUS, the broadband mapping applications will be evaluated by the states and ultimately by NTIA.
The BDIA requires grantees to keep trade secrets and financial information of providers confidential unless agreed otherwise by the provider and the grantee, the NOFA said. NTIA agrees not to give out confidential information “except as required by applicable law or judicial or administrative action.” A footnote in the NOFA said all information submitted to NTIA will be subject to Freedom of Information Act requirements, which makes it available to the media and others. Confidentiality requirements have been a major roadblock for past mapping efforts, largely due to providers’ concerned about giving out detailed data on their footprints and customers.
Applicants must provide details for five major categories: Data gathering and accuracy, project feasability, project speed, the ability to update maps and planning. Data gathering and project feasability will be given the most weight when the applications are evaluated, the NOFA said. Additionally, applicants are required to put up 20 percent of the “total eligible project cost,” though some pre-grant costs can count towards the matching requirement. NTIA said it will announce the award winners beginning Sept. 15.
Connected Nation, a broadband mapping company, was “encouraged by the fact that there is so much emphasis to use mapping as a tool to prioritize investments and track progress over time,” said CEO Brian Mefford. Mefford said he had analysts going over the NOFA throughout the night, but the group still has a lot more to go through: “There is a detail on every line.”
As of Thursday, many with a vested interest were still parsing the 45-page document. Some, including Sharon Gillet, director of the Broadband Institute, and Andy Laudick, chief operating officer of Afterimage GIS, another broadband mapping company, did not want to comment on the mapping NOFA until they had more time to go through it carefully.