The U.S. Treasury dished out its third helping of Capital Projects Fund awards, handing five states more than $400 million to expand broadband to more than 90,000 locations.
Indiana received the largest award, earning approval for $187 million to reach just over 50,300 homes and businesses with high-speed connections. The money is set to be distributed through the Next Level Connections (NLC) Broadband Grant Program, which is targeted at service areas that lack access to speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps up.
Nebraska got $87.7 million to reach 21,000 locations via the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program (NBBP), while Arkansas secured $47.5 million to connect about 5,500 homes through its Arkansas Rural Connect (ARC) Program. North Dakota received $45 million to connect nearly 4,000 locations and Connecticut was approved for $40.8 million to cover 10,000 locations. The latter will distribute support through the forthcoming Connecticut Broadband Infrastructure Program.
Indiana’s NLC program has already completed three funding rounds, with one each in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Together, the three rounds have provided $268 million in support to the likes of AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Frontier Communications, Mediacom, and dozens of others to connect nearly 75,000 locations.
