When we think of federal infrastructure grants, it’s natural to think of the big-dollar grant programs. Those programs often make big awards to fund big infrastructure projects. The program with the biggest awards was RDOF. These weren’t technically grants, but a long-term subsidy for somebody promising to build broadband infrastructure, but most winners have treated RDOF as grant funding. Some of the RDOF awards are huge. LTD Broadband won $1.3 billion in the reverse auction, which was eventually voided. Charter won $1.2 billion, and Windstream won $522 million.

Other grant programs also have relatively big awards. USDA ReConnect 4 awarded $700 million in grants to 89 projects, meaning an average award of $7.9 million. BEAD has tentatively awarded $21 billion in grants to over 500 entities, with an average award of over $40 million. Many BEAD awards are a lot smaller than that, but there were also giant winners like Comcast, which won $1.7 billion across multiple states.

There are at least two federal agencies that have been awarding smaller grants that are broadband-related. The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) makes grants aimed at economic development in 255 counties and parishes in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. A similar agency is the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), which plays a similar role across 423 counties in Appalachia across thirteen states. These agencies are required by law to make most of their awards in economically distressed counties.

Both agencies place most of their attention on projects such as water and sewer systems, transportation issues like roads and bridges, business development that promotes economic development, and workforce training. But both agencies have made grants that are clearly related to broadband. The awards at these agencies for broadband-related issues are generally small, ranging from $25,000 to $200,000.

At that size, these grants aren’t building big infrastructure projects. Instead, the grants are aimed at local needs that are too small to be funded by other programs. For example, the agencies funded outdoor WiFi during the pandemic when communities were struggling with a lack of broadband access. They fund feasibility studies, some of which have been used to attract funding from the bigger grant programs. The grants tackle projects like connecting libraries to fiber.

There are also state grant programs that make small awards, such as the program in some states that fund part of the construction cost to reach residents with long drops. In the last few years, there has also been a number of grant programs from non-profits that have made technical assistance grants related to broadband for communities.

I suspect that many of the people in the broadband industry aren’t even aware of these smaller grant programs. The point of this blog is to stress how important these small grants are. Communities that get these grants understand that there are usually no other sources of this type of funding. The small grant programs typically address a specific problem in a community that would be hard to fund in any other way.

I’ve noticed this year that a lot of the non-profit and state grants have either disappeared or are being funded at a much lower level. One has to wonder how long agencies like DRA and ARC will be allowed to make small broadband infrastructure grants since the FCC and NTIA seem poised to announce that the national broadband gap has been solved.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Most communities, even those that might have fiber to most residents, still have parts of the market that have been left behind by fiber overbuilders or the big grant programs. Many smaller towns and villages that have not attracted fiber have a long list of needs. I hope that small broadband grants will continue to be funded, because I see the need for such grants everywhere. Grants don’t have to be gigantic and complicated to be effective.