Indiana State Broadband Office

The Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) coordinates Indiana's Next Level Connections Broadband funds.

The Indiana Broadband Office (IBO) works alongside OCRA and the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to provide guidance and technical assistance on a wider array of broadband topics.

OCRA's website states: "The Next Level Connections Broadband Grant Program is designed to provide funds for the deployment of broadband infrastructure to provide eligible broadband service to unserved end users, which include households, businesses and community anchor institutions, such as schools and health clinics, across Indiana."

OCRA's website provides information on eligible entities, projects, activities and project areas. The site says that all grant requests require a 20% match.

Application deadlines, documents, webinars and other resources are also listed on the website.

Funding for the current rounds come from the American Rescue Plan (ARP.) Per the law, the state prioritizes projects that provide 100 Mbps symmetrical upload and download speeds to as many locations as possible.

The state will provide $1.2 million in each of the fiscal years 2022 and 2023 from the state rural broadband fund for grants.

The Indiana state legislature also enacted two other laws in 2021 that establishes priorities for awarding grants from its rural broadband fund, and expands the legal definition of of eligible projects and what constitutes terrestrial broadband. The other new law also allows ISPs to bid to serve areas if they can provide 50x5 upload and download speeds in certain circumstances.