The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) www.ntia.doc.gov Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) previously funded two infrastructure projects built by Pine Telephone and the State of Oklahoma.
Pine Telephone used its $9.5 million award to deliver affordable wireless broadband service to the predominantly unserved tribal lands of the Choctaw Nation located in rural southeastern part of Oklahoma.
The State of Oklahoma is using a $74 million BTOP grant to build a fiber optic middle-mile network called the Oklahoma Community Anchor Network to help rural and underserved communities across the state.
Since, the BTOP program closes officially in September 2015, NTIA knows that work still needs to be done to close the digital divide. To keep expanding broadband, the new BroadbandUSA initiative www.ntia.doc.gov was put in place to promote local and regional broadband deployment and adoption throughout the U.S.
The program is going to use toolkits and training programs, conduct webinars, engage stockholders, study business models, help evaluate financing options, and work to attract private-sector investment.
The broadband program will fund leads and basic guidance to communities as they grow their broadband capacity. BroadbandUSA will also sponsor a series of regional workshops to bring together local government, industry, and community leaders to explore broadband challenges they face and then work together to find solutions.
NTIA is also participating in the President’s Broadband Opportunity Council (BOC) www.ntia.doc.gov/category/broadband-opportunity-council, an interagency working group to promote broadband investment and to coordinate broadband policy across the federal government. BOC will also help identify regulatory barriers impeding broadband deployment, adoption or competition, and recommend steps to remove such barriers.