USDA Rural Development · Broadband
ReConnect Program (Rural Broadband)
Loans, grants, and combinations for high-speed broadband infrastructure in rural areas where 90% of households lack 100/20 Mbps service. Cities can partner or sponsor projects.
Whether your city can win this comes down to hard rules — population, designation, match capacity. Run your city and our AI checks it against the rules below in about 8 minutes.
Program facts
- Typical award
- $500K – $50M
- Non-federal match
- Varies by NOFO
- Eligible entity
- U.S. cities & local governments
- Application window
- Annual rounds; window varies.
- Typical prep time
- 12–24 weeks
- Statutory authority
- Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018
Who is eligible for ReConnect Program (Rural Broadband)?
These are the hard rules we check against. If one fails, the program is ineligible — the AI never overrides a rule.
- Cities are eligible applicants.
- Rural eligibility: population under 50,000 (USDA threshold).
- Population ceiling: no more than 50,000.
Rural areas; eligibility based on service availability rather than only population. Amounts and timing approximate; verify directly with administering agency.
How Strategic Pursuit scores this program
Run a city dossier and our AI cross-checks ACS demographics, 5-year USAspending award history, FEMA disaster history, and CEJST/Justice40 + HUD designations against this program's rules. You get a clear eligibility, strategic, and competitive answer — with the city's own hard evidence ready to anchor the narrative — instead of a generic match badge. And if it's a no-go, you'll know before you spend the month.
The dossier isn't the AI's guesswork — eligibility is decided by the rules, and the numbers come straight from official sources. The answer your reviewer will check line by line.
No credit card. 30-day trial, 3 dossiers, 1 seat.
Related programs
- Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) (NTIA)$1M – $100M
- Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program (NTIA)$5M – $100M
- Community Connect (Rural Broadband Grants) (USDA Rural Development)$100K – $5M
- Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant Program (USDA Rural Development)$50K – $1M
Award ranges, match percentages, and windows are approximate.