The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced today that it had completed awarding 46 grants under the State and Local Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP) 2.0. The grants are designed to help states prepare for the construction of the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet) nationwide public safety broadband network. In 2013 and 2014, NTIA awarded $116.5 million in SLIGP grants to 54 states and territories. Those grants expired in February, and many recipients did not use all the funds. NTIA said today that it was “providing an initial increment of funding in the first nine months of the SLIGP 2.0 program and a second increment for the next 15 months. The initial funding totaled $12.6 million, while the second funding increment, expected to be disbursed in the last quarter of calendar year 2018, will deliver another $20 to $22 million to these same grant awards.”