WMX Systems announces BTOP Grant Application Support Package
Overview
The rules for BTOP grant applications are out. How will you describe how your application addresses the 5 statutory purposes of the BTOP?
Per paragraph
VI.D.1.a.xvi of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program Notice of Funds
Availability your grant application must provide: A
description of how the applicant will advance the objectives of the Recovery
Act,as well as
the specific objectives of BTOP, (a) to provide access to broadband service to
consumers residing in unserved areas of the country; (b) to provide improved
access to broadband service to consumers residing in underserved areas of the
country; (c) to provide broadband access, education, awareness, training,
equipment, and support to community anchor institutions (e.g., schools,
libraries, medical facilities), or organizations and agencies serving
vulnerable populations (e.g., low-income, unemployed, aged), or job-creating
strategic facilities located in state- or federally-designated economic
development areas; (d) to improve access to, and use of, broadband service by
public safety agencies; and (e) to stimulate the demand for broadband, economic
growth, and job creation;
This 300+ page reference package provides cut-and-paste content that will save the applicant hundreds of man-hours in researching and writing a grant application to support a WiMAX-based project.
The BTOP Grant Application Support Package enables service providers, municipalities and other grant applicants to quickly and accurately write a technology-detailed, application-specific grant application to fund a WiMAX network in their unserved or underserved market.
At the core of the BTOP Grant Application Support Package is the Template for BTOP Grant Application which contains excerpts from the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) pertinent to submitting the grant application, Suggested Inputs, which is an 85 page document to support a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant application.
Suggested Inputs document addresses various focus areas and critcial issues such as:
- Public Benefits: Access, applications, and affordability for unserved or underserved markets
- Core WiMAX Applications: Support for education, healthcare, EBS spectrum, public safety, video surveillance, security, quality of service, job creation, low-income households, flu pandemic, etc.
- Leading Edge Applications: "smart grid" applications, utilities, school districts, 1:1 computing, VoIP backhaul, etc.
- Financial and Strategy: Cost estimates, financials, expected outcomes, deployment strategy, budgeting, auditing and oversight of the project
- Miscellaneous: Public-private partnerships, market specifics, "greening" the application, why the project could not be done in the time frame of the grant period without federal grant funding, VoIP, backhaul, meeting the build out requirements
In addition to the 85 page BTOP Suggested Inputs document, the BTOP Grant Application Support Package includes the following:
- WiMAX RFP (15 pages PDF)
- Softswitch RFP (26 pages PDF)
- WiMAX Business Planning Tool (Excel spreadsheet)
- WiMAX in Support of Education (84 pages PDF)
- WiMAX in Support of Healthcare (51 pages PDF)
- WiMAX in Support of Public Safety (24 pages PDF)
- WiMAX in Support of Job Creation and Economic Development (78 pages PDF)
- Wireless Backhaul as Middle Mile Infrastructure for WiMAX Networks (35 pages PDF)
