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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 37 / Friday, February 26, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
1740.26 Public notice.
1740.27 Environmental and related reviews.
1740.28 Civil rights procedures and requirements.
1740.291740.41 Reserved Subpart DAward Terms 1740.42 Interest rates.
1740.43 Terms and conditions.
1740.44 Security.
1740.45 Advance of funds.
1740.46 Buy American requirement 1740.471740.58 Reserved Subpart EApplication Submission and Evaluation 1740.59 Application submission.
1740.60 Elements of a complete application.
1740.61 Evaluation for technical and financial feasibility.
1740.62 Evaluation of Awardee operations.
1740.63 Financial information.
1740.64 Network design.
1740.651740.76 Reserved Subpart FClosing, Servicing, and Reporting 1740.77 Offer and closing.
1740.78 Construction.
1740.79 Servicing of grants, loan and loan/
grant combinations.
1740.80 Accounting, reporting, and monitoring requirements.
1740.81 Default and de-obligation.
1740.821740.93 Reserved Subpart GOther Information and Federal Requirements 1740.94 Confidentiality of Applicant information 1740.95 Compliance with applicable laws.
1740.961740.99 Reserved 1740.100 OMB control number.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1981b4, 7 U.S.C.
901 et seq., 7 U.S.C. 950aaa et seq., and 7
U.S.C. 950cc.

Subpart AGeneral
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1740.1

Overview.

a The Rural eConnectivity Program, hereinafter referred to as Program, provides funding in the form of loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to facilitate broadband deployment in rural areas.
One of the essential goals of the Program is to expand broadband service to rural areas that do not have sufficient access to broadband. This part sets forth the general policies, eligibility requirements, types and terms of loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations and program requirements.
b Additional information and application materials regarding the Program can be found on the Rural Development website.

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1740.2

Definitions.

a The following definitions apply to this part:
Administrator means the Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service, or the Administrators designee.
Agency means the Rural Utilities Service RUS.
Applicant means an entity requesting funding under this part.
Application means the Applicants request for federal funding, which may be approved in whole or in part by RUS.
Award documents mean, as applicable, all associated grant agreements, loan agreements, or loan/
grant agreements.
Award means a grant, loan, or loan/
grant combination made under this part.
Awardee means a grantee, borrower, or borrower/grantee that has applied and been awarded federal assistance under this part.
Broadband loan means, for purposes of this regulation, a loan that has been approved or is currently under review by RUS after the beginning of Fiscal Year 2000 in the Telecommunications Infrastructure Program, Farm Bill Broadband Program, Broadband Initiatives Program or this Program.
Broadband loans that were rescinded or defaulted on, or the terms and conditions of which were not met, are not included in this definition, so long as the entity under consideration for an award under this part has not previously defaulted on, or failed to meet the terms and conditions of, an RUS loan or had an RUS loan rescinded.
Broadband service means any fixed terrestrial technology, including fixed wireless, having the capacity to transmit data to enable a subscriber to the service to originate and receive high quality voice, data, graphics and video.
CALEA means the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, 47
U.S.C. 1001 et seq.
Composite economic life means the weighted by dollar amount of each class of facility average economic life of all classes of facilities necessary to complete construction of the broadband facilities in the proposed funded service area.
Current ratio means the current assets divided by the current liabilities.
Debt Service Coverage Ratio DSCR
means the ratio of the sum of the Awardees total net income or margins, depreciation and amortization expense, and interest expense, minus an allowance for funds used during construction and amortized grant revenue, all divided by the sum of interest on funded debt, other interest and principal payment on debt and capital leases.

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Economic life means the estimated useful service life of an asset as determined by RUS.
Eligible service area means any contiguous proposed funded service area where 90 percent of the households to be served do not have sufficient access to broadband service. For eligibility purposes, if an applicant is applying for multiple proposed funded service areas, each service area will be evaluated on a stand-alone basis.
Equity means total assets minus total liabilities as reflected on the Applicants balance sheet.
Fixed wireless service means a wireless system between two fixed locations e.g., fixed transmitting tower to fixed customer premise equipment.
Forecast period means the five-year period of projections in an application, which shall be used by RUS to determine financial and technical feasibility of the application.
GAAP means accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Grant means any federal assistance in the form of a grant made under this part.
Grant agreement means the grant contract and security agreement between RUS and the Awardee securing the Grant awarded under this part, including any amendments thereto, available for review on the Agencys web page.
Indefeasible Right to Use IRU means the long-term agreement of the rights to capacity, or a portion thereof specified in the terms of a certain amount of bandwidth or number of fibers.
Loan means any federal assistance in the form of a loan made under this part.
Loan agreement means the loan contract and security agreement between RUS and the Awardee securing the Loan, including all amendments thereto, available for review on the Agencys web page.
Loan/grant means any federal assistance in the form of a loan/grant combination made under this part.
Loan/grant agreement means the loan/grant contract and security agreement between RUS and the Awardee securing the loan/grant, including all amendments thereto, available for review on the Agencys web page.
Non-funded service area NFSA
means any area in which the applicant offers broadband service or intends to offer broadband service during the forecast period but is not a part of its proposed funded service area.
Pre-application expenses means any reasonable expenses, as determined by RUS, incurred after the release of a Federal Register notice opening an
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