Broadband grant applicants need to provide the NTIA with information about climate resiliency, labor practices, type of technology to be used, competitive landscape analysis, interconnection policy, community anchor institutions, an environmental narrative and more.

Facilitate Symmetrical Gigabit Connections to Community Anchor Institutions

Each applicant seeking an award to build middle mile infrastructure using fiber-optic technology shall certify that the proposed project, upon completion, will include direct interconnection facilities that will facilitate the provision of broadband service, at speeds not less than 1 Gigabit per second for downloads and 1 Gigabit per second for uploads to anchor institutions located within 1,000 feet of the middle mile infrastructure.

An eligible entity applying for a middle mile grant may seek a waiver of these requirements set to the extent the eligible entity demonstrates that the requirement is not technically or economically feasible.

For more information, please refer to Section VIII.E. of the Middle Mile NOFO.

Note: You can use Broadband.money’s maps to identify all community anchor institutions in your project area - making it super easy to comply with this requirement.

Climate Resilience Applicants must demonstrate that they have sufficiently accounted for current and future weather- and climate-related risks to new MMG Program infrastructure projects. At present, weather- and climate-related risks to broadband networks include wildfires, extreme heat and cold, inland and coastal flooding, and the extreme winds produced by weather events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and other weather events.

In particular, each applicant should clearly demonstrate, at a minimum, that it is conducting each of the following:

1. Identify the geographic areas that should be subject to an initial hazard screening for current and future weather- and climate-related risks and the time scales for performing such screenings;

2. Identify which weather and climate hazards may be most important to account for and respond to in these areas and over the relevant time horizons, utilizing the tools and resources recommended below or other resources available to the applicant; 3. Characterize any weather and climate risks to new middle mile infrastructure deployed using MMG Program funds for the 20 years following deployment; 4. Identify how the proposed plan will avoid and/or mitigate the weather and climate risks identified; and 5. Detail the applicant’s plans for periodically repeating this process over the life of the project to ensure that evolving risks are understood, characterized, and addressed, and that the most up-to-date tools and information resources are utilized.