Application Dates Announced for Rural Broadband Experiments Competition

WASHINGTON — The application filing window for participation in the rural broadband experiments will open on Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 9AM EST and close on Friday, November 7 at 6PM EDT, according to the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau, the competition's sponsoring agency.

Applicants must complete and submit FCC Form 5610 to participate in the rural broadband experiments. As part of Form 5610, applicants must attach a dedicated bid form for each proposed project, a single descriptive data form listing all of their proposed projects, and certain project information. A link to Form 5610 will be available at http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/rural-broadband-experiments on October 23.

Applicants have 15 days from the opening of the filing window to submit Form 5610. Thus, the application filing deadline is Friday, November 7 at 6PM EST. Applicants are reminded that the application filing deadline is a firm deadline and are encouraged to file as early in the application filing window as possible to ensure that they have ample time to correct any errors that may occur with their application.

Rural Broadband Experiments Webinar
Applicants are encouraged to review all of the informational materials released by the Bureau, particularly the Rural Broadband Experiments Webinar. The webinar covers each step of completing Form 5610, including how to upload and attach bid forms, descriptive data forms, and project information. In addition, the Bureau has made available templates of the bid form and descriptive data form, a sample project information submission, and guides dedicated to working with the rural broadband experiments census block list and completing the bid form. All these materials are available at http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/rural-broadband-experiments.

Making Broadband Stone Soup
Jonathan Chambers, chief of the FCC Office of Strategic Planning, provided perspective on the FCC's thinking behind the competition in a speech he called "Making Broadband Stone Soup" at Broadband Communities’ economic development conference in Springfield, Mass., in September 2014. Applicants are encouraged to read the transcription in Broadband Communities magazine at the link above.