Leverage Federal Funds

e-Rate Funding for School

• The federal E-rate program provides subsidies to schools and libraries, including funds to upgrade services under certain circumstances.
• The specific resources funded through these programs are restricted to be used only by qualified schools, libraries and research institutions, but in many cases those specific resources can be purchased from or be made part of a larger project.
  -This service can be aggregated as part of total demand for the region and provide maximum buying power when negotiating with providers.

Federal Economic Development Administration

• The EDA, will partially fund public works projects used for economic development purposes.
• Broadband projects are theoretically eligible for this funding, and it is ideally suited to funding lateral extensions to under and unserved commercial and industrial areas.
• More specifics about this grant opportunity can  be found at the Grants.gov website

Federal and State Agencies for Telemedicine

• Federal and State agencies provide funding for broadband resources that support telemedicine programs.
• Typically, telemedicine programs buy services from existing providers rather than constructing facilities, and can potentially be anchor tenants of new broadband projects.
• The possibility of tapping into these funds should be considered whenever a healthcare provider can be served by proposed lateral or other network extensions.
• The Telemedicine.com site keeps current all related grant information.