NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Jade Piros de Carvalho, director of the Office of Broadband Development for the Kansas Department of Commerce, said that the large FCC award to NextLink that includes many Kansas communities will have an effect on a state program her office administers through the Treasury Department that is also federal pass through dollars.
"If you have an area that's already covered by another federal grant, then you can't receive this federal grant," Piros de Carvalho said. "The problem is, the Treasury award, they're part of the American Rescue Plan Act."
That law requires funds be expended in around two years, and preferential treatment is given to in-ground broadband like fiber and cable. The NextLink service in Kansas, as Piros de Carvalho understands it now, is based on wireless, and the RDOF funds have an eight-year build out horizon.
"I just need to reach out to NextLink," Piros de Carvalho said. "I've been texting them. I need to call with them. I'd like to see what their build out schedule for Kansas is. They got RDOF in a lot of states."
The expansion of broadband by all possible methods is the goal, but connectivity is always better sooner than later.
Public comments are being accepted for the submitted applications for the state administered Capital Projects Fund-Infrastructure Program until September 9. To the degree that this narrows the number of eligible applications, it may help some non-Nextlink connected areas to qualify.
"It's helpful in that we know that those NextLink awarded areas will be considered served, so we can knock them out of our program's consideration."
The service providers’ funding requests for the CPF program total almost $600 million for the available $83.5 million in funding provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury under the American Rescue Plan Act.