Broadband Technical Assistance

Background
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS or the Agency), a Rural Development (RD) agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces the acceptance of applications for Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. The Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA) Program encourages expansion of broadband services in rural areas by awarding cooperative agreement funding to eligible applicants. This funding enables recipients to deliver or receive technical assistance and training to support broadband deployment. The BTA program is administered by USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), which supports the development and improvement of infrastructure in rural areas, including electric, renewable energy, and telecommunications.

Grant Details
The Broadband Technical Assistance (BTA) Application Guide explains the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service’s (RUS) policies and procedures for submitting an application for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funding. The guide is divided into three sections: Program Summary, Application Instructions, and Appendix.

The program summary includes information on eligibility requirements, available funding, selecting a funding category, applicant eligibility, eligible project purposes, scoring criteria, and program resources.

The application instructions detail the requirements for submitting an application electronically using grants.gov and include written narrative proposal guidelines, standard form requirements, sample budget worksheet instructions, sample communities worksheet instructions, availability of existing broadband access details, determining rurality instructions, and registration requirements.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible entities to receive or deliver broadband technical assistance and training include federally recognized Tribes and Tribal organizations, state or local governments, territories or possessions of the United States, institutions of higher education including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, cooperatives or mutual organizations, corporations, limited liability companies or partnerships. Individuals are not eligible for BTA funding.

Grant Value
About $25 million is available in fiscal year 2024 BTA funding. Minimum and maximum awards vary depending upon the funding category selected: up to $15 million is available for technical assistance providers with a minimum award of $100,000 and a maximum award of $1 million; up to $10 million is available for technical assistance recipients with a minimum award of $50,000 and a maximum award of $500,000. Neither funding category requires cost share or matching funds.