Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
A. Eligible
locations in the state are organized by the office into a set of pre-defined
areas, or "sub-project areas." Prospective subgrantees will define their
proposed overall deployment projects, but such proposals must be submitted in
the form of sets of SPAs. By including an SPA in an application, the provider
commits to reach all included eligible locations.
B. Qualified prospective subgrantees may
submit a Round 1 application, after SPAs are determined by the office.
1. A Round 1 application must include:
a. the list of SPAs included in the
application;
b. the amount of BEAD
funds requested;
c. the proposed
technology type for the project; and
d. additional primary and secondary scoring
application elements including plans for affordability, fair labor practices,
deployment timeline, speed of network, and any other supporting information
required by NTIA.
2.
Round 1 applications will be analyzed to identify any overlap between
applications, with a limited number of selections made according to a
prioritization approach. Any such selections will be subject to review and
confirmation by the office that the applicant has the requisite operational,
managerial, and financial capability to fulfill the subgrant in the specific
SPAs included. Any other Round 1 applications that overlap with a Round 1 award
will be deemed denied, but the applicant will be permitted to resubmit any
non-overlapping SPAs as a new application in Round 2.
C. In Round 2, all remaining unawarded Round
1 applications will automatically be pulled forward and may not be withdrawn.
Round 1 applications may be simply left as-is for Round 2, or the applicant may
make certain changes including adding new SPAs to the application and/or
changing the amount of requested BEAD funding. Any Round 1 applicant may also
propose new Round 2 applications exclusively comprising SPAs that did not
receive any applications in Round 1.
1. Round
2 applications then will be selected for funding as follows. First, all FTTH
applications will be scored using the scoring rubric described below, with
de-confliction of overlapping FTTH applications resolved.
2. Next, all non-FTTH applications available
for SPAs not already selected for FTTH proposals will be scored and
de-conflicted in the same fashion.
3. Prior to finalizing all the Round 1 and
Round 2 selections, the office will review the overall set of awards that could
be made based on these steps to assess whether 100 percent of unserved
locations would be served by either priority or reliable service within the
available BEAD allocation budget for the state.
a. If this assessment indicates that the
level of service that would be provided to BEAD-eligible locations could be
improved, the office will apply the extremely high location threshold
(EHCT).
4. The office
will conduct a final review of selected proposals to confirm that the total set
of awards to each prospective subgrantee is consistent with the financial,
operational and managerial capabilities submitted in the pre-qualification
process, confidentially engaging with specific providers if needed to confirm
or clarify any identified issues, and reserving the ability if necessary to
select an alternative proposal if any concerns about the ability of the
provider to deliver on all awards remain. The office will publicly announce all
awards selected.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
Promulgated in accordance with
R.S.
51:2370.21-2370.33.
