One of the most infamous standup comedy routines is George Carlin’s “seven ‘dirty’ words you couldn’t say on television.”  The routine was played on the radio and even spurred a hearing with Supreme Court to review the legality of saying these words on-air. While that list is obviously not appropriate here - the words that have been bandied about and debated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this year are important for you to know if you want to participate in the bid for stimulus dollars.

Broadband

Providing two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits per second (Kpbs) downstream and at least 200 Kbps per upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in a “middle mile” (see below) project to support the provision of broadband service to end users. Many have said this definition of broadband is much too slow and should be more like 5 or 10 Mbps.

Community Anchor Institutions

Schools, libraries, medical and healthcare providers, public safety entities, community colleges and other institutions of higher education, and other community support organizations and agencies that provide outreach, access, equipment and support services to facilitate the greater use of broadband service by vulnerable populations, including low-income, unemployed and senior citizens.

Critical Community Facilities

Public facilities that provide community services essential for supporting the safety, health and well-being of residents, including, but not limited to, emergency response and other public safety activities, hospitals and clinics, libraries and schools.

Last and Middle Mile

Last mile refers to any infrastructure project the predominant purpose of which is to provide broadband service to end users or end-user devices (including households, businesses, community anchor institutions, public safety entities, and critical community facilities).

Middle mile refers to a broadband infrastructure project that does not predominately provide broadband service to end users or end-user devices, and may include interoffice transport, backhaul, internet connectivity, or special access.

Rural Area

Any area, as confirmed by the latest U.S. Bureau of the Census data, which is not located within a city, town, or incorporated area that has a population of greater than 20,000 inhabitants; an urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants.

Underserved

A proposed funded service area, composed of one or more contiguous census blocks* meeting certain criteria that measure the availability of broadband service and the level of advertised broadband speeds. These criteria conform to the two distinct components of the Broadband Infrastructure category of eligible projects.

Specifically, a proposed funded service area may qualify as underserved for last mile projects if at least one of the following factors is met:

• No more than 50% of the households in the proposed funded service area have access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband at greater than the minimum broadband transmission speed.

• No fixed or mobile broadband service provider advertises broadband transmission speeds of at least three megabits per second (Mbps) downstream in the proposed funded service area, or;

• The rate of broadband subscribership for the proposed funded service area is 40% of households or less.

A proposed funded service area may qualify for middle mile projects if one interconnection point terminates in a proposed funded service area that qualifies and unserved or underserved for last mile projects.

Unserved

A proposed funded service area, composed of one or more contiguous census blocks*, where at least 90 percent of households in the proposed funded service area lack access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service, either fixed or mobile, at the minimum broadband transmission speed (set forth in the definition of broadband above). A household has access to broadband service if the household can readily subscribe to that service upon request.

Although this list is not as comprehensive as others (click here to download the all the definitions in the NOFA), these are the terms or “dirty” words that have continued to be discussed and debated since the initial notification of the opportunity to bid for stimulus dollars in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

At the Knight Center of Digital Excellence we encourage you to learn these words and continue to follow our blog as it parses their meaning so that your community will be better able to apply for your share of the stimulus pot.

*Census blocks are the smallest geographic areas for which the U.S. Bureau of the Census collects and tabulates its census data. Census blocks are formed by streets, roads, railroads, streams and other bodies of water, other visible physical and cultural features, and the legal boundaries shown on Census Bureau maps. Census data at this level serve as a valuable source for small-area geographic studies. See the Census Bureau’s website at www.census.gov for more detailed information on its data gathering methodology.