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

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. Eligible areas
				for the GUMBO grant program are areas without deployed internet access service
				providing reliable transmission speeds of at least 100:20 Mbps through wireline
				or fixed wireless technology, and which qualify as an unserved area as defined
				in this Part. The Office, at its sole discretion, may determine an applicable
				standard of what, whether a technology, network design, or transmission speed
				delivered, is considered "reliable." This standard may be adjusted for each
				succeeding grant round, as technology improves and reliable measurable
				techniques and reporting advances. This standard may also be applied to any
				singular location, area, or geographic boundary, as established by the Office.
				These areas are the focus of broadband expansion under this grant
				program.
B.
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.