Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2. BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE Under the ARPA, recipient governments may use SLFRF funds to make "necessary investments in...broadband infrastructure." In the Supplementary Information to the interim final rule, Treasury interpreted necessary investments in infrastructure as investments "designed to provide an adequate minimum level of service and [that] are unlikely to be made using private sources of funds." Treasury explained that, with respect to broadband specifically, such necessary investments include projects that "establish [] or improve [] broadband service to underserved populations to reach an adequate level to permit a household to work or attend school, and that are unlikely to be met with private sources of funds." Summary of Interim Final Rule, Public Comments, and Treasury Response Summary of Interim Final Rule: In implementing the ARPA, the interim final rule provided that eligible broadband infrastructure investments are limited to those that are 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 interim final rule also provided that eligible projects under the SLFRF are limited to those that are designed to deliver, upon project completion, service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps. In instances where it would not be practicable for a project to deliver such service speeds because of the geography, topography, or excessive costs associated with such a project, the interim final rule provided that the project would be required to be designed to deliver, upon project completion, service that reliably meets or exceeds 100 Mbps download speed and between at 294