To be eligible for the program, communities must have a population of less than 20,000 and have an unemployment rate of more than 19.5 percent. Also, residents of the communities must have no local Internet access or broadband service.

Internet access now provided at local schools, libraries or health care facilities would not exclude communities from participating in the program, Mora said.

He said the RCA used state employment statistics and a 2001 telecommunications survey conducted by the Denali Commission to identify about 50 communities that meet the program criteria.

"I have to add a caveat, though," Mora said. "Those are the communities we think will qualify. But the data was from 2000, so some of those places may have Internet access by now, and there may be others that are not on this list that are eligible."

The list of communities, and a program description, can be viewed on the commission's Web site: www.state.ak.us/rca/.

Mora said a main component of the program is to get communities actively involved in developing uses for the technology.

"Once you get the broadband service going, then what?" he asked.

"There are requirements in there for basic training, and business development training, looking at what you can do that can lead to some economic development in a small community," he said.

Mora said the RCA expects to get grant proposals from telecommunications and cable providers by November, and after a 30-day evaluation, begin awarding grant funds in early 2004. The RCA also has applied for an additional $7.5 million grant from the USDA to continue the program in 2005.

The applicants must commit at least 25 percent of the needed funding for the construction and startup phases of the program. After providing free public Internet access for at least 18 months, the applicants can begin charging access fees approved by the RCA for public service and residential subscriptions.

Companies who apply for the grants do not necessarily have to be based in Alaska, Mora said, adding that the program is designed to accommodate more than one successful bidder.

"It could be one company," he said. "It depends on the proposals, but it isn't geared to one company, it could be multiple providers."

The proposals must be not only technically feasible, they have to have a stable future. "It has to be sustainable, once these grant funds go away. It has to stay in operation," Mora said.

The Alaska Telephone Association represents numerous small telephone companies across the state. ATA Executive Director Jim Lowe said he thinks members of the association will be very interested in the grant application, once it is released by the state.

He said many of the communities identified by the RCA under the program are served by ATA member companies.

"This is what we do," Lowe said. "We deliver telecommunications to very high-cost areas in the state for our customers and we need to make it affordable. These kinds of programs offer that."

David Morris, a spokesman for General Communications Inc., said GCI is interested in the project, but needs to see more paperwork.

"I think the devil is in the details," he said. "There are a lot of questions we have. It sounds like all the details really haven't been produced yet.

"Right now we're up to our eyeballs building out high-speed Internet to villages in rural Alaska, anyway, and some of those may be on the list, so there is going to have to be some scrubbing," Morris said.

While GCI would have to weigh the costs and benefits of participating in the program, Morris said the percentage of grant funding being proposed is enticing.

"Anytime you can offset 75 percent of your capital construction costs, that's nothing to sneeze at," he said.