The Governor’s Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment today announced the formation of a Broadband Review Team to develop goals, guidelines and determine the best use of the $7.2 billion in broadband competitive grant funding available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The Broadband Review Team is co-chaired by John Landers, Chief Information Officer for the State of Rhode Island and Michael Pickett, Chief Information Officer, Computer and Information Services for Brown University. Members include

• Thomas Ahern, Administrator, Division of Public Utilities and Carriers
• Carole Cotter, Chief Information Officer, Information Services, Lifespan
• Stuart Freiman, Business Development Manager, Digital Media, RI Economic Development Council
• Chris Long, Policy Advisor, Policy and Legislative Affairs, Governor's Office
• Tony Lupinacci, Enterprise Network Service Manager, Division of Information Technology, State of RI
• David Porter, Director, Media and Technology Services, University of Rhode Island
• Richard Prull, Assistant Vice President for Information Services, Rhode Island College
• Stephen Vieira, Chief Information Officer/Executive Director of Information Technology, Community College of Rhode Island

The mission of the Broadband Review Team is to increase awareness of broadband funding opportunities, explore opportunities for collaborative efforts amongst potential applicants, and to obtain public comment, on priorities for Rhode Island The Broadband Review Team will hold a public meeting on Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. (Department of Administration, Conference Room A (2nd Floor), 1 Capitol Hill, Providence) to provide guidance to those interested in submitting a grant application.

“In addition to its role as a tool for job creation, broadband access will also allow for greater educational and workforce development opportunities for our community,” said Governor Donald L. Carcieri. “This will enable us to expand our educational and workforce development efforts to train workers and ensure they have the skills necessary to compete in today’s job market. The availability of broadband access plays an increasingly more important role in our local economy. Broadband access is important to our efforts to serve our existing businesses and its availability will be a key factor in our efforts to recruit new jobs to our area.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to implement the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), a $4.7 billion one-time competitive matching grants program to expand broadband services to unserved and underserved areas, improve broadband access for public safety agencies, schools, libraries, medical and healthcare providers, community colleges and other institutions of higher education, and stimulate the economy by creating jobs. BTOP makes two-year competitive grants available to states, non-profit organizations and broadband service providers, and requires a 20 percent matching investment from nonfederal funding sources.

Applications for BTOP funding are to be submitted to the NTIA by August 14, 2009. NTIA will review all applications and send the Governor a list of applications under consideration for funding. The Broadband Review Team will review ARRA broadband grant applications, and recommend projects for endorsement by the Governor that provide the greatest service to the citizens of Rhode Island. The Broadband Review Team will use the following criteria in evaluating applications under consideration by NTIA:

• Experience in building and managing a network
• Ability to get a network built quickly (funded projects need to be completed 2 years from date of grant)
• Ability to pay the 20% match
• Sustainability, an assurance that the network has a business model after the initial 2 years
• Partnerships and the ability to have the network serve as many people as possible, especially public safety, healthcare, higher education and libraries.
• Spur job creation
• Applicants will be required to submit a system design and project timeline, certified by a professional engineer, for projects requesting funds over $ 1 million.
For more information on the Broadband grant opportunities, please visit www.recovery.ri.gov or www.broadbandusa.gov.

Related links

Department or agency: Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment

Online: http://www.recovery.ri.gov/

Release date: 07-15-2009