Broadband Technology Opportunities Program

Program Name: Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
Point of Contact: Andrew Buss

Program Description

Federal Grant Name: Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
Programs Supported Through Funding: Digital Philadelphia - Broadband Infrastructure
Amount Applied For: $22 million
Funds Awarded: No award to date
Point(s) of Contact for Project(s):

• Andrew Buss – Division of Technology – Andrew.buss@phila.gov - 215-686-8264(landline) 215-327-9101(BlackBerry)

Why Apply for this Grant?

The City is attempting to improve its underlying broadband and network infrastructure and meet the grant eligibility criteria of generating economic development, improving public safety, and increasing broadband access and use by the underserved population. Additionally, the infrastructure grant application is intended to complement and enable the activities of two additional proposal categories, adoption programs and public computer centers. The Free Library Foundation submitted an adoption programs application on behalf of the City in Round One and DOT will submit a Round Two public computer center application.

Project Objectives

• Broadband fiber build-out in the core of the City as well as in three target areas (North, West, and South Philadelphia).
• In addition to adding fiber, strategically placing wireless access points throughout the target areas in order to blanket those areas with Internet capability.
• Leveraging existing wireless infrastructure to take advantage of previous City investment.
• In the target areas, connecting numerous community anchor institutions with fiber and wireless capability, including police and fire stations, homeless shelters, PHA developments, community and recreation centers.
• Supporting existing and future Internet adoption programs and public computer centers in these target areas.
• Collaboratively linking Philadelphia institutions and community organizations around broadband enhancement and use.
• Reducing City network maintenance costs by having participating community institutions share the costs of the network and reducing the number of TLS circuits required for the network.

Job Creation

We did not estimate the number of jobs created in our proposal but did note that this is a “shovel ready” project capable of quickly generating employment by building out broadband infrastructure. Pending a grant award, we do not expect to know how many jobs will be created until program activities are clearly defined.