WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has closed the book on its $4 billion Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP), the subsidy program dating from the 2009 economic stimulus bill.
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration was declaring victory last week, but cable operators and numerous Republicans had plenty of issues with how that money was spent, and on whom.
But the government is not done spending money on broadband deployment and adoption. It has released a guide to where that money can now be found.
The NTIA released a new Broadband Funding Guide, which provides a roadmap on how to access federal funding to support broadband planning, public access, digital literacy, adoption and deployment.
It’s worth a look both for the places where providers can get subsidies to provide their service — and for where the government might be finding more money to fund potential overbuilders.
