82 Applicants Seek $396 Million in Iowa Broadband Grants

The Iowa Office of Chief Operations Officer, which serves as the state's broadband office, has announced the applications it received in the latest round of the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program. The latest round, Notice of Funding Opportunity 7 (NOFA 007) includes 188 applications by 82 applicants seeking $396 million in funding to build broadband in unserved areas.

The NOFA 007 round, which closed to applications in late November, has a budget of $200 million that was designated by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds from the state's American Rescue Plan allocation. With nearly double the amount of requests than funds available, many applicants will go away empty-handed in this round, just as they have in previous rounds.

Most of the applicants in Iowa are independent telecommunications cooperatives and mutal companies as well as a number of municipals. Among the applicants are CBAN Provider members Indianola Municipal Utilities, Manning Municipal Utilities, Grand Mound Cooperative Telephone, Mahaska Communications Group, Waverly Utilities, Osage Municipal Utilities, Vinton Municipal Communications Utility, ImOn Communications, and Router 12 Networks.