The broadband expansion grant program. (FE)

Current law requires PSC to establish criteria for evaluating applications and awarding grants under the broadband expansion grant program and requires that the criteria give priority to projects meeting various standards, such as including matching funds and involving public-private partnerships. Under the bill, the criteria must require that projects serve unserved areas. The bill specifies that the criteria must prioritize projects with 50 percent or more matching funds and projects that are capable of offering service with either combined download speeds and upload speeds of 900 megabits per second or greater, or download speeds of 450 megabits per second or greater and upload speeds of 450 megabits per second or greater. When evaluating a grant application, the bill requires PSC to consider all federal broadband grant program project areas related to the proposed project. The bill prohibits PSC from awarding grants for projects that do not include at least 40 percent matching funds or for projects that are not capable of offering download speeds of 100 megabits per second or greater and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second or greater (minimum download and upload speeds).

The bill adds a procedure by which an ISP in or near to a project area proposed in an application for a broadband expansion grant may challenge the awarding of that grant. An ISP may challenge the grant if that ISP currently provides or will complete construction to provide broadband service to that area at minimum download and upload speeds or if that ISP commits to completing construction of broadband infrastructure and providing broadband service to that area at minimum download and upload speeds no later than 24 months after the date grants are made for the grant cycle under which the application was submitted. The bill requires PSC to evaluate the challenge and prohibits it from funding the project if it determines as credible the challenging ISP's commitment to provide broadband service that meets the requirements.

The bill allows PSC to require the recipient of a broadband expansion grant to submit a project completion final report before any withheld grant funds are disbursed. The bill requires the final report to include the number of customer locations passed, upgraded, or within range and how many actually ordered broadband service as a result of the project, as well as an official certification of speeds. The bill requires PSC to disburse any withheld grant funds to an eligible grantee no later than 30 days after the final report is submitted, and to submit the report to the joint committee on finance and to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature. The bill requires PSC to provide technical assistance and educational tools for broadband expansion grant project development.

The bill provides PSC a mechanism for annually collecting from ISP grantees the same broadband availability and speed data they must disclose to the Federal Communications Commission under the federal Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (BDATAA) and to use this information to develop and maintain broadband availability maps. However, the bill requires PSC to review the maps created by the FCC under BDATAA and, if they provide sufficient information to facilitate access to broadband service in unserved areas, eliminates the requirement that ISPs annually disclose this information to PSC.