USDA Community Connect Grant Program FY 2026: Rural Broadband Grants for Unserved Communities

USDA Community Connect Grant Program FY 2026: Rural Broadband Grants for Unserved Communities

This page is a historical reference for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Community Connect Grant Program Fiscal Year 2026 opportunity. The application window closed on June 29, 2026, and the FY 2026 notice says applications received after that deadline would not be reviewed or considered under any circumstances. No subsequent notice or replacement deadline is identified in the current USDA Community Connect materials, so this page should not be treated as an open funding opportunity.

Program status and key facts

The FY 2026 Community Connect Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was published on May 13, 2026, under funding opportunity number RDRUS-CC-2026. It offered competitive grants for broadband deployment in rural, economically challenged communities where broadband service did not exist. The stated program purpose was community-oriented connectivity: a project needed to serve the proposed funded service area (PFSA) as a whole and support economic development, education, health care, and public safety.

The deadline in the table is the closed cycle’s actual deadline, not a forecast. The program guide states that the online system would disable submission after the window closed. It also says RUS would not solicit or consider scoring or eligibility information submitted after the deadline. There is therefore no basis for replacing the date with rolling, extending it, or inventing a later date.

What the FY 2026 grant supported

The grant was intended for capital and directly related project costs needed to deploy high-speed internet throughout an eligible PFSA. Eligible grant purposes included construction, acquisition, or leasing of facilities, spectrum, land, towers, or buildings used to deliver service to all residential and business customers in the PFSA and to participating essential community facilities. The program guide also allowed grant funds for a community center that provides free public access to high-speed internet.

A funded community center had specific limits. It needed to be accessible to area residents before, during, and after normal working hours and on Saturday or Sunday. The project needed at least two computer access points and wireless access at the broadband grant speed, with grant funding able to support as many as ten access points. Community-center grant funds were limited to the lesser of 10% of the requested grant amount or $150,000. If a building was constructed with grant funds, it had to be on property owned by the applicant.

Grant funds could also cover the bandwidth needed to provide the broadband grant speed free of charge to essential community facilities for two years. The USDA materials identify examples such as public schools, fire stations, and public libraries. Leasing costs for facilities used to deploy service could be eligible during the three-year advance-of-funds period described in the award documents.

The program was not general operating support. Except for permitted facility leasing and bandwidth for the required free service, operating expenses were not eligible grant purposes. Grant funds could not duplicate existing broadband service, lines, facilities, or systems. Costs incurred before submission of a completed application were not eligible grant or match purposes. Equipment purchased for the project needed to be new or non-depreciated.

Who could apply

The FY 2026 NOFO incorporated the applicant rules in 7 CFR 1739.10. Eligible legal forms included:

• Incorporated organizations.
• Federally recognized Indian tribes or tribal organizations as defined in 25 U.S.C. 5304.
• State governments and local units of government.
• Cooperatives, private corporations, limited liability companies, and other legal entities organized on a for-profit or not-for-profit basis.

The application guide expressly states that an individual or partnership could not apply. Regardless of organizational form, an applicant needed legal capacity and authority to enter contracts, comply with applicable federal statutes and regulations, and own and operate the broadband facilities proposed in the application. An applicant relying on a partner to operate the system needed to identify that entity and provide an agreement or draft agreement describing the specific financial terms and the operator’s qualifications.

Federal compliance was part of eligibility, not an optional post-submission cleanup task. A corporation convicted of a federal felony within the previous 24 months was ineligible. An assessed unpaid federal tax liability that was no longer subject to available remedies and was not being paid under an agreement could also disqualify a corporation. The applicant and its principals could not be debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from USDA programs, delinquent on federal debt, or subject to an outstanding judgment obtained by the United States in federal court. RUS stated that it would screen applicants and principals through the Do Not Pay System.

Service-area requirements

The PFSA needed to be a single contiguous geographic area located entirely within an eligible rural area. It could include multiple communities or counties and could cross state lines, but the area as a whole had to satisfy the program’s rural and broadband-availability rules. The application guide says the rural definition used the most recent 2020 Decennial Census and excluded, among other places, cities or incorporated areas with populations greater than 20,000 and certain urbanized areas contiguous and adjacent to a city or town with a population greater than 50,000.

The area had to lack existing fixed broadband service at 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. RUS said it would validate the applicant’s service-availability claims using the latest FCC Location Fabric dataset and other mapping resources. Satellite and mobile services did not count as broadband service for the program’s definition. The applicant remained responsible for verifying the service gap and preparing an accurate map.

The proposed project had to offer at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream to every residential and business customer in the PFSA. The guide permits fixed terrestrial service delivered through fixed or wireless technology, but mobile wireless technology was not eligible. A PFSA could not overlap current RUS borrower or grantee service areas. Areas with reported federal funding to construct facilities providing at least 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up were generally ineligible, as were areas with an enforceable federal, state, or local broadband commitment at the time of the NOFO. Applicants also had to avoid duplicate reimbursement and keep separate accounts if another federal award was involved.

Projects touching tribal lands required correspondence or written approval from the appropriate tribal entity authorizing the application and construction. Environmental, permitting, and right-of-way requirements still had to be satisfied before construction. These geographic checks were central to the application: a polished network design could not cure an ineligible or duplicative PFSA.

Match and financial planning

The FY 2026 guide required the awardee to provide or demonstrate available cash reserves equal to at least 15% of the requested financial assistance when the application was submitted. Matching contributions had to be cash, used solely for the project, and supported by quarterly schedules to RUS until the contribution was expended. The guide allowed qualifying cash match to cover project expenses, including operating expenses that could not be paid from the grant.

Manufacturer or service-provider discounts, in-kind contributions, project-generated income, federal financial assistance without a statutory exception, and other non-cash items were not eligible match sources. Applicants seeking a special matching provision for American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands needed to address the applicable federal rule. A request involving a substantially underserved trust area provision, including a possible match waiver, carried eligibility risk unless the application otherwise demonstrated the required match.

Application process and required materials

The FY 2026 process was electronic. Applicants began through Grants.gov and were redirected to the USDA Community Connect Application Intake System. Mail, fax, and email submissions were not accepted. Before submitting, an applicant needed an active SAM registration, a valid UEI, completed SAM financial-assistance certifications and representations, and the required USDA access credentials. The NOFO warned that Level II eAuthentication, an Authorized Representative Request, and a resolution could take several business days, so access needed to be arranged before the deadline.

The application guide identified these major components for a complete submission:

1. Standard Form 424, SAM registration, legal-existence evidence, and related documentation.
2. An executive summary of the project.
3. Documentation addressing the scoring criteria.
4. A system design.
5. A service-area map and demographics.
6. A scope of work.
7. A community-oriented connectivity plan.
8. Financial information and sustainability materials.
9. A statement of the applicant’s experience.
10. Additional funding information.
11. Compliance information for applicable federal statutes and regulations.

The PFSA map had to be created in the RUS system or uploaded in the required geographic format. The applicant needed to show the full service area, explain the lack of qualifying broadband, demonstrate service to every premise at the required speed, and address duplication checks. The submission also needed a realistic construction and operations plan, a budget tied to eligible purposes, financial projections, match evidence, and any tribal or partnership documentation that applied.

RUS instructed applicants to assemble and tab materials in the order required by the application guide because an incomplete or disordered package could prevent a timely eligibility determination. Only one proposal per applicant was eligible for approval in this FY 2026 opportunity. If an applicant submitted more than one proposal, the agency said it would consider only the highest-scoring application.

How to use this page now

Because the FY 2026 deadline has passed and no later cycle is identified in the USDA materials reviewed for this update, this entry is useful for historical research only. It preserves the FY 2026 deadline and requirements so organizations can understand the program’s prior structure, compare future notices, and prepare questions for RUS. It should not be used to claim that applications are currently being accepted.

For any future Community Connect round, confirm the new NOFO, amount, service-speed definition, matching rules, eligible areas, required forms, application system instructions, and deadline directly with USDA Rural Development. The official program page is the best starting point because it links the current notice, application guide, intake system, maps, and contact information. A future notice may change any of the FY 2026 details recorded here.

Official sources

• USDA Rural Development Community Connect Grants: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/telecommunications-programs/community-connect-grants
• FY 2026 Community Connect Application Guide: https://www.rd.usda.gov/media/file/download/cc-application-guide.pdf
• FY 2026 Community Connect NOFO: https://files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunities/068ef5f3-2cd1-415b-8f32-f96fa63d91ba/attachments/78e6e0cd-0344-4479-8d86-036901e55ffe/CCG_NOFO_FY_26_corrected.pdf