Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee

The Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program (Broadband Program) furnishes loans and loan guarantees to provide funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide service at the broadband lending speed in eligible rural areas.

Who may apply?

To be eligible for a broadband loan, an applicant may be either a non-profit or for-profit organization, and must take one of the following forms:

• Corporation;
• Limited liability company (LLC);
• Cooperative or mutual organization;
• A state or local unit of government
• Indian tribe or tribal organization

Individuals and Partnerships are not Eligible.

Corporations that have been convicted of a felony (or had an officer or agent acting on behalf of the corporation convicted of a felony) within the past 24 months are not eligible. Any Corporation that has any unpaid federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability, is not eligible for financial assistance provided with funds appropriated by the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012, P.L. No. 112-55.

What is an eligible area?

• Proposed funded service areas must be completely contained within a rural area or composed of multiple rural areas, as defined in 7 CFR 1738
• At least 15 percent of the households in the proposed funded service area are unserved,
• No part of the proposed funded service area has three or more “incumbent service providers.”
• No part of the proposed funded service area overlaps with the service area of current RUS borrowers or the service areas of grantees that were funded by RUS.

Communities where USDA Rural Utilities Service has previously provided funding for construction of broadband infrastructure may not be eligible.

In order to be counted as a broadband service provider for eligibility purposes, a Public Notice Response must be submitted once a Public Notice Filing has been published for each applicant’s Proposed Funded Service Area. Those interested in receiving email notifications whenever a new application has been submitted and the Public Notice Filing has been published can do so by signing up for our Public Notice Filing subscription service.

How may the funds be used?

Broadband loans provide funding on a technology-neutral basis for financing:

• The construction, improvement, and acquisition of facilities required to provide service at the broadband lending speed including facilities required for providing other services through the same facilities
• The cost of leasing facilities required to provide service at the broadband Lending speed if such lease qualifies as a capital lease under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• An acquisition, under certain circumstances and with restrictions
• For additional detail see 7 CFR 1738

What kind of funding is available?

Direct Loans :  Cost of Money Loans

What are the loan terms?

In general Loan Terms are limited to the expected composite economic life of the assets to be financed plus 3 years.