Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Grant Applications Due Nov. 15

With the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act’s second round of grants, members of the Tennessee Telecommunications Association will continue to play an integral role as broadband access expands.

“I’ve said for years that the challenge of bringing broadband to all Tennesseans would involve a multiprong solution, but that TTA members should be at the center of that,” says Levoy Knowles, executive director of the TTA.

Grants for about $45 million over three years and tax credits for service providers made the first round of grants a success, Knowles says. In the second round, the maximum grant request is again $2 million. And the grant can cover as much as 50 percent of eligible project expenses.

The Broadband Accessibility Grant program is designed to offset capital expenses in the deployment of broadband in unserved areas. The goal of the program is to bring broadband to all Tennesseans and to promote practices that increase broadband deployment.

More than half the grants awarded so far have gone to TTA members. “We’re encouraging our TTA members to apply for these grants and receive more funding as it becomes available,” Knowles says.

Grant applications are due by Nov. 15, and there are a few changes in the guidelines. Grant recipients will be announced in February 2019.