The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service has revised its eligible service area definition for the Community Connect Grant Program for FY 2023. The previously released Notice of Funding Opportunity suggested that eligible service areas would be defined as areas that lack broadband access at speeds of 25/3 Mbps. But RUS has now revised its eligible service area definition to speeds of 10/1 Mbps. Thus, areas receiving or that have received final approval for funding from other federal sources to construct terrestrial broadband facilities providing at least 10/1 Mbps, as of December 19, 2023, are ineligible for the program.
