The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced on November 15, 2018, that it is now accepting fiscal year 2019 (FY19) applications for the Rural Broadband Access Loans and Loan Guarantees Program on a rolling first-come, first-served basis throughout FY19. RUS will rank submitted applications every 90 days based on the percentage of the unserved households that the applicant is proposing to serve. Applicants proposing to serve the highest number of unserved households will receive funding offers before applications with proposals that serve fewer unserved households.

In addition:

• RUS has revised the minimum loan request amount to $100,000 and the maximum amount to $25 million for the FY19 program.
• Loan recipients may use the funds for the construction, improvement, and acquisition of facilities and equipment that will provide service at a minimum rate-of-data transmission, currently set at 25Mb (downstream) and 3 Mb (upstream) for both mobile and fixed services, in eligible rural areas.

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