GITA Announces Submission of Federal Grant Application for
State of Arizona Broadband Mapping Grant

PHOENIX – Chad Kirkpatrick, State CIO & Director of the Government Information Technology Agency (GITA), announced today that the State of Arizona’s $4.3 million broadband mapping and planning grant application was formally submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for consideration and possible funding.

“This federal grant, if approved, will allow the State of Arizona to map the broadband capabilities of the entire state so that all un-served and underserved broadband areas of the state will be known,” Director Kirkpatrick said. “Broadband service to these areas will open the door to providing better healthcare, education, public safety and business opportunities to more Arizonans.”

NTIA has requested grant applications from the states for funding state broadband maps. A national broadband map will be created from information collected by the states. In cases where states are not awarded grants, NTIA itself will collect the broadband data for that particular state.

NTIA is expected to announce the broadband mapping grant awards on or about September 15, 2009. States who are awarded federal mapping grants are expected to have completed broadband data collection by March 1, 2010. Federal law requires a national broadband map to be in place no later than February 17, 2011.

GITA has been designated by the Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer as the eligible entity to submit the broadband mapping grant for the State of Arizona. GITA’s $4.3 million grant application consists of two parts: Approximately $3.8 million for mapping broadband in Arizona, plus an additional $500,000 for related broadband planning. Both amounts are the maximum allowed for this NTIA grant.
 

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