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Consumers & Communities

Pennsylvania is providing tools and assistance to help breach the digital divide. Act 183 will provide the following:

• Funding for community outreach activities and aggregation efforts to facilitate spread of broadband
• Deployment of broadband in areas critical for economic growth
• Business attraction and retention program

Through Act 183, telecommunications infrastructure will be in place so that every Pennsylvania community will have broadband access as early as 2008, and no later than 2015. This is well ahead of the broadband access schedules set forth by telephone companies, and consumers will continue to benefit from having one of the fairest and most competitive telecommunications markets in the nation.

Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund

The Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund (BOAF) is a vehicle whereby the DCED will be responsible for outreach programs concerning the benefits, use and procurement of broadband services as well as providing seed grants to aggregate customer demand in communities with no service.

The Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund (BOAF) is a grant program designed to help communities aggregate the demand for broadband service and require local telephone companies to respond to the new demand for services in a more timely fashion.

According to Act 183, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) will provide support for the following:

• Outreach programs for political subdivisions, economic development entities, schools, health care facilities, businesses, and residential customers concerning the benefits, use and procurement of broadband services
• Seed grants to aggregate customer demand for broadband services in communities with limited access to such services, and to request such services from a telecommunications provider

The BOAF fund is capped at $5 million per year. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) estimates that DCED will receive approximately $2.3 million in fiscal year 2006/2007. Application guidelines can be found here.

For additional information, please click here.

BOAF Grants: Click to view a list of Grantees and a synopsis of their program