Appropriates $42.45 billion for states, territories, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to use for broadband planning, deployment, and adoption projects. Each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will receive an allocation of at least $100 million and the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands will each receive $25 million. Each state will receive initial funding of $5 million and each territory will receive initial funding of $1.25 million to support broadband planning efforts including building capacity in state broadband offices and outreach and coordination with local communities. Leveraging those initial planning funds each state and territory will submit a 5-year action plan, which shall be informed by collaboration with local and regional entities. The remaining funding will be distributed based on a formula that considers the number of unserved and high-cost locations in the state, based on the maps to be published by the Federal Communications Commission in 2022. The first priority for deployment is for providing broadband to projects that primarily reach unserved locations (those below 25/3 Mbps), followed by those that primarily reach underserved locations (those below 100/20 Mbps), and then serving community anchor institutions (1/1 Gbps).

Planning (e.g. broadband data collection and mapping); broadband infrastructure deployment (e.g. construction), to promote broadband adoption, including through the provision of affordable internet-connected devices; to provide Wi-Fi or reduced-cost internet access to multi-family housing units; and for other uses that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration determines are necessary to facilitate the goals of the program.

NOFO Open in May 2022