The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released the Final Rule for the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Replacing the Interim Final Rule, the Final Rule (which takes effect April 1st) provides recipients with significantly more flexibility in how they spend their funds on broadband projects.
Eligible broadband projects under the Interim Final Rule were limited to those designed “to provide service to unserved or underserved households or businesses, defined as those that lack access to a wireline connection capable of reliably delivering at least minimum speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.” The Final Rule, however, removes the unserved or underserved requirement. Instead, recipients now “have flexibility to identify a need for additional broadband infrastructure investment,” which includes (but is not limited to) “lack of access to a connection that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical 100 Mbps download and upload speeds, lack of affordable access to broadband service, or lack of reliable broadband service.”
Rather than be bound by a 25/3 requirement, governments can use their Fiscal Recovery Funds for projects in areas where there’s an identified lack of high-speed service, lack of affordable access or lack of reliable service. To make such determinations, recipients can use data from a variety of sources, including “internet service performance, federal and/or state collected broadband data, user speed test results, interviews with community members and business owners, reports from community organizations, and any other information they deem relevant.” They can also take into account “the actual experience of current broadband customers when making their determinations; whether there is a provider serving the area that advertises or otherwise claims to offer broadband at a given speed is not dispositive.”
As local governments receive their second tranche of Fiscal Recovery Funds this spring, this additional flexibility is a welcome development in the effort to expand reliable, high-speed broadband access to all households.