Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Program Overview:
The New Jersey Office of Broadband Connectivity (OBC) is pleased to announce that it has begun soliciting applications for the New Jersey Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Equity (NJBIDE) Pilot Program.
The NJBIDE program is an investment in the future of New Jersey, ensuring that NJ residents have the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly digitally interconnected world. To achieve this goal, New Jersey will award funding for broadband infrastructure that addresses existing disparities in broadband access, supports economically distressed and marginalizing communities, and helps New Jersey residents achieve their economic potential.
Through a competitive grant process, the NJBIDE program will use $40M from the Capital Projects Fund (CPF) to fund the construction and deployment of broadband infrastructure projects that are designed to deliver, upon project completion, service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 Mbps. As part of this program, applicants must agree to serve all unserved and underserved Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) and community anchor institutions in their proposed project area.
Applications are due on February 7th, 2025, at 5:00PM ET. Proposed projects must be designed to be substantively complete by December 31, 2026.
Flexibility for high cost areas:
In instances where geographic, topographic, or cost considerations render the provision of symmetrical 100 Mbps service impractical (and such instances must be supported by documentation), the project design must ensure reliable delivery of at least 100 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds between 20 Mbps and 100 Mbps, with the capacity for future scalability to symmetrical 100 Mbps.
Mbps upload speeds, with scalability to 100 Mbps symmetrical in the future.
- Local Government Units
- Co-operatives
- Non-profit Organizations
- Electric Utilities
- Private Entities that build or operate broadband networks, including networks that are owned, operated by, or affiliated with local governments
- Public-private Partnerships
Eligible Project Costs:
- Pre-project costs: Expenses directly tied to an eligible broadband infrastructure project, such as planning, engineering, and utility pole replacement/placement, are eligible for funding.
- Construction and deployment costs: Expenses related to the actual construction and deployment of the broadband infrastructure.
Ineligible Costs:
- Acquisition of spectrum licenses
- Operating expenses other than grant administration costs (limited to $25,000 or 5 percent of the grant award, whichever is greater)
- Short-term operation leases
- Satisfaction of any obligation under or pursuant to a settlement agreement, judgment, consent decree, or judicially confirmed debt restructuring plan in a judicial, administrative, or regulatory proceeding;
- Payment of interest or principal on outstanding debt instruments or other debt service costs incurred prior to March 15, 2021;
- Fees or issuance costs associated with the issuance of new debt;
- Costs not directly enabling work, education, or health monitoring
- Duplicative costs covered by other federal or state funding source commitments
- Infrastructure not directly connected to service provision for an end-user in the proposed area Long-term capital asset purchases/leases, although cost allocation for use during the project period will be considered on a case-by-case basis
- Long-term capital asset purchases/leases, although cost allocation for use during the project period will be considered on a case-by-case basis
- Costs related to supporting or opposing collective bargaining -- This does not affect the ability to use funds to comply with 41 C.F.R. 60-1.4.
A project area refers to a contiguous area that is comprised of at least one Census Block Group. If a project area includes multiple Census Block Groups, it must still include each Block Group in its entirety. Project areas may comprise multiple municipalities and/or counties, provided that the project area remains contiguous
As part of this program, applicants must agree to serve all unserved and underserved locations and community anchor institutions in their proposed project area.
To support project area planning, the Office of Broadband Connectivity has created a Broadband Data Collection Interactive Map to inform your project proposals and help bridge the digital divide in New Jersey.
Download Unserved/Underserved BSL(s) Download CAI(s)
NJBIDE Priority counties
The Capital Projects Fund empowers recipients to identify and prioritize communities with critical needs in work, education, and health monitoring that can be addressed through targeted broadband infrastructure projects.
Therefore, one of NJBIDE’s goals is to prioritize investments in economically distressed areas and areas where households and businesses do not currently have access to reliable high-speed internet. Thus, applications that include, in part or in whole, Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Essex, Salem, and Warren counties will be prioritized.