Rural Broadband Loans, Loan/Grant Combinations, and Loan Guarantees

State Telecommunications Field Representatives

Federal program contact: 202.720.0800

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

Eligible entities may be either a nonprofit or for-profit organization intending to provide services in an eligible rural area, and must take one of the following forms:

• Corporation
• Limited liability company (LLC)
• Cooperative or mutual organization
• Tribe or tribal organization
• State or local government, including any agency, subdivision or instrumentality thereof

Eligible areas are defined as:

• The proposed funded service area must be completely contained within a rural area or composed of multiple rural areas
• At least 15% of the households in the proposed funded service area are unserved
• No part of the proposed funded service area has 3 or more incumbent service providers
• No part of the proposed funded service area overlaps with the service area of current Rural Utilities Service (RUS) borrowers or the service areas of grantees that were funded by RUS

Loan minimum: $100,000
Loan maximum: $25,000,000

Loan interest rates

Links to program guidance, required forms, and the online application portal are available on the program website.