Louisiana Administrative Code
Title 4 - ADMINISTRATION
Part XXI - Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities
Chapter 2 - Mapping Areas for Broadband Service and Project Area Eligibility Requirements
Section XXI-201 - Eligible and Ineligible Project Areas

1. Ineligible areas for the program are areas that already have reliable internet access service available to them at transmission speeds of at least 100:20 Mbps through wireline or fixed wireless technology. In addition, areas, inclusive of any singular location where a provider has been fully authorized to receive funding through Universal Service, Connect America Phase II, Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or other public funds shall be considered served and therefore ineligible for the GUMBO grant program if such funding is intended to result in the initiation of activity related to construction of wireline broadband infrastructure in the area within 24 months from the expiration of the grant application period. In order to designate areas as ineligible and subject to exclusion, providers shall submit to the office individual addresses not less than 60 days prior to the beginning date of the application period. Such individual addresses shall be submitted in shapefile and table format, and shall be inclusive of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, specific to each individual address. Should such an address be assigned a specific geolocator number or other specific identifier by the federal government prior to submission to the Office, relative to federal broadband availability mapping efforts, such identifier shall be included with each address. Such addresses shall also be denoted by individual points within the shapefile. Any location or area of the state, subject to a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund award, in which the provider receiving the award has proposed to provide broadband internet access service through a technology other than a wireline technology, may be eligible for the GUMBO grant program.

2. A provider with firm plans to privately fund broadband deployment within 20 months from the expiration of the grant application period may qualify the area for protection by submitting to the office, within 30 days of the close of the application period, a listing of the individual addresses comprising the privately-funded project areas meeting this requirement. Such individual addresses shall be submitted in shapefile and table format, and shall be inclusive of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, specific to each individual address. Should such an address be assigned a specific geolocator number or other specific identifier by the federal government prior to submission to the Office, relative to federal broadband availability mapping efforts, such identifier shall be included with each address. Such addresses shall also be denoted by individual points within the shapefile. A provider seeking to qualify the area for protection shall provide the office with evidence of plans to deploy within 20 months, which shall include detailed project plans, schedules, detailed budgets, or executive affidavits. Providers that block competitive bidding for GUMBO grant program funding through credible evidence of intent to build, as evaluated and determined at the office's sole discretion, shall be required to sign a commitment with penalties for failure to execute. Such penalties may be determined and imposed at the office's sole discretion. The office may also, at its sole discretion, grant an extension of the 20-month period.

3. A provider seeking to privately fund broadband deployment shall construct and provide deployable and reliable broadband service within the 20-month period to at least 80 percent of the designated locations. The office may, at its sole discretion, grant an extension of the 20-month period. Such a provider shall furnish to the Office a bond to guarantee the faithful performance of work, in an amount equal to the cost of proposed construction and deployment. If such a provider fails to perform in any material manner, as determined by the Office at its sole discretion, and the performance bond becomes due, the provider shall become ineligible for any state-administered grant program designated for broadband development efforts, for a time period to be determined by the Office.

4. A local governing authority, to include a parish or municipal governance board comprised of publicly elected members, but not to include school district governance boards, may submit, in writing, an official resolution to the Office objecting to any provider that has received, at the time of the passage of the resolution, a letter grade rating of "D" or "F", or any subsequently equivalent rating, from the Better Business Bureau. At the request of the local governing authority, such a provider shall be ineligible to bid or place an application, solely or in partnership with any other provider, to deploy broadband services within the jurisdictional boundary of the local governing authority through the GUMBO grant program. Any such resolution shall be duly passed and submitted to and received by the Office prior to the date of the opening of any associated grant application period. A local governing authority shall not be limited as to the number of resolutions it may pass, nor the number of providers to which it may object. Any such objection shall be applicable for one grant application period, only, and a local governing authority reserves the right to submit additional resolutions, in the future, specific to any succeeding grant application period.

5. Failure on the part of a provider to submit a relevant project area for ineligibility and exclusion shall result in those areas being eligible for GUMBO grant funding for the applicable grant application period. However, a provider with existing wireline technology facilities in the area, or a provider that intends to deploy reliable broadband service within either 24 months of the close of the application period as a result of receiving public funds specifically for broadband deployment, or 20 months of the close of the application period as a result of plans to privately fund deployment, upon submitting evidence to the Office, shall be able to utilize the protest process.