Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 003 - DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE › Division 19 - Arkansas Economic Development Commission › Rule 003.19.24-002 - Arkansas BEAD Challenge Process

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
SECTION 1.
BACKGROUND.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) and the Arkansas
	 State Broadband Office (ARConnect) issue this Rule to implement the Broadband,
	 Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The BEAD program allocates state
	 grants for the construction of broadband networks, establishment of affordable
	 high-speed internet access, and creation of training programs to equip users
	 with digital skills. This Rule details the process for challenging the
	 Broadband Funding Map published by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
	 identifying locations that are eligible for BEAD funding.
SECTION 2.
DEFINITIONS.
(1) "25/3 Mbps" means an internet speed of 25
  megabits per second for downloading content, and 3 megabits per second for
  uploading content.
(2) "100/20
  Mbps" means an internet speed of 100 megabits per second for downloading
  content, and 20 megabits per second for uploading content.
(3) "Affordable Connectivity Program" means
  an FCC benefit program that provides a discount of up to $30 per month for
  internet access for households below a certain income threshold, or $75 per
  month for areas which qualify as high-cost according to the FCC.
(4) "Area" means a Census Block Group (CBG)
  as that term is used by the United States Census Bureau.
(5) "Area or MDU challenge" means a single
  challenge lodged by two or more permissible challengers, rather than those
  challengers each filing their own challenge.
(6) "BEAD" means the Broadband Equity,
  Access, and Deployment Program established by the Infrastructure Investment and
  Jobs Act of 2021.
(7) "Broadband
  Serviceable Location" or "BSL" means a business or residential location at
  which mass-market fixed broadband Internet access service is, or can be,
  installed.
(8) "Buy It Now
  Threshold" means the threshold above which competitive tranche-1 bids will be
  granted provisional awards.
(9)
  "Community Anchor Institution" or "CAI" means an entity such as a school,
  library, health clinic, health center, hospital or other medical provider,
  public safety entity, institution of higher education, public housing
  organization, or community support organization that facilitates greater use of
  broadband service by vulnerable populations, including, but not limited to,
  low-income individuals, unemployed individuals, children, and aged
  individuals.
(10) "Competitive bid"
  means an applicant's bid for a project area that overlaps with a bid from a
  different applicant.
(11) "Conduit"
  means a protective tube or trough through which fiber is run.
(12) "Data cap" means an internet service
  provider-imposed limit on the amount of data that a consumer can use over a
  certain time period.
(13)
  "Deployment" means the build-out of broadband infrastructure to unserved and
  underserved locations.
(14)
  "Digital Skills and Opportunity Plan" means Arkansas' document outlining the
  State's vision for digital opportunity in the context of its overarching
  strategy and goals.
(15) "Download
  speed" means the rate that digital data is transferred from the Internet to a
  computer.
(16) "Digital Subscriber
  Line" or "DSL" means a networking technology that provides broadband over
  conventional telephone lines.
(17)
  "Enforceable commitment" means a National Telecommunications and Information
  Administration (NTIA) classification for locations that are receiving broadband
  infrastructure buildouts from federal or state programs excluding BEAD. Such
  locations are considered served by these programs and are therefore ineligible
  for BEAD funding.
(18) "Extremely
  High Cost Per Location Threshold" means the point at which fiber deployment is
  no longer cost effective and alternate technologies are considered.
(19) "High-cost area" means an unserved area
  in which the cost of building out broadband service is higher, as compared with
  the average cost of building out broadband service in underserved
  areas.
(20) "Infrastructure
  Investment and Jobs Act" or "IIJA" means the federal law passed in 2021 that
  established the BEAD program.
(21)
  "Latency" means the time it takes to send data and receive a
  response.
(22) "Low-cost plan"
  means a reduced cost internet service plan for areas below a certain income
  threshold.
(23) "Mbps" means
  megabits per second.
(24) "Minimum
  application score threshold" means a threshold below which ARConnect will
  consider other coverage options for an area that does not receive any bids
  scoring above the threshold.
(25)
  "Mobile test unit" means a testing apparatus that can be easily moved, which
  simulates the equipment and installation (antenna, antenna mast, subscriber
  equipment, etc.) that would be used in a typical deployment of fixed wireless
  access service by the provider.
(26) "Multiple dwelling unit" or "MDU" means
  residential duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, apartment buildings, condominiums,
  mobile home parks, trailer courts, or similar types of multi-unit arrangements
  on one parcel of land often served by one internet service provider.
(27) "National Broadband Map" means the map
  provided by the FCC that provides information about the internet services
  available to individual locations across the country, along with new maps of
  mobile coverage, as reported by ISPs in the FCC's ongoing broadband data
  collection;
(28) "National
  Telecommunications and Information Administration" or "NTIA" means the division
  of the United State Department of Commerce that is responsible for overseeing
  the BEAD program.
(29)
  "Non-deployment projects" means projects that boost technological capacity,
  educational resources, and digital skills and opportunity for the adoption of
  broadband.
(30) "Project area"
  means the set of one or more areas that will be serviced as part of a
  bid.
(31) "Reference subsidy" means
  a target BEAD subsidy for each area that ARConnect will establish to guide
  applicants' bids.
(32)
  "Right-of-way" means a legal right, established by a grant from a landowner or
  long usage, to pass along a specific route through property belonging to
  another.
(33) "Served" means
  receiving an internet speed greater than or equal to 100/20 Mbps.
(34) "Severe convective storm" means a local
  storm associated with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, hail, strong winds, or
  sudden temperature changes; capable of producing a tornado, hail greater than
  or equal to one (1) inch in diameter, and/or winds greater than fifty-eight
  (58) miles per hour.
(35) "Speed
  test" means a measurement of speed between a device and a test server using a
  device's internet connection.
(36)
  "Standard operating procedure" means a specific process for challenge
  evaluators to follow when reviewing challenge applications.
(37) "Subgrantee" means an internet service
  provider (ISP) that has been awarded a portion of Arkansas' federal BEAD grant
  to build broadband infrastructure for a given area of the state. For
  non-deployment projects, a subgrantee may be a non-profit organization, unit of
  local government, business, or other entity awarded a portion of BEAD funding
  to implement non-deployment initiatives.
(38) "Underserved" means receiving an
  internet speed less than 100/20 Mbps but greater than or equal to 25/3
  Mbps.
(39) "Unserved" means
  receiving an internet speed less than 25/3 Mbps.
(40) "Upload speed" means the rate that data
  is transferred from a computer to the Internet.