<p>Well, it’s been a fascinating week in Washington, D.C. for the broadband industry! NTIA just released its Model Challenge Process Guidance for Initial Proposals. As you are aware, BEAD includes the requirement that each Eligible Entity submit an Initial Proposal describing, among other things, a “challenge process” under which a unit of local government, tribal government, nonprofit organization, or broadband service provider may challenge a determination made by the Eligible Entity in the Initial Proposal as to whether a <i><u>particular location or community anchor institution is eligible</u></i> for BEAD funds, including whether <i>a <u>particular location is unserved or underserved</u></i>.</p><p>NTIA sought feedback from the public and 61 stakeholders filed comments. See <a href="https://internetforall.gov/bead-challenge-process-policy">Internet for All </a>to access the Model Guidance and related documents.</p><p>To prepare for your challenge, check out <a href="https://ready.net/products/challenge-process-coordinator">Ready’s Challenge Process Coordinator</a>, and be sure to stay tuned to <a href="https://ready.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ready.net</a> and <a href="https://broadband.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Broadband.io</a> for additional information.&nbsp;</p>

Read the NTIA's newly released Model Challenge Process Guidance for Initial Proposals.

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NTIA Announces Updated BEAD Challenge Process Policy

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Years in the making, state broadband offices now know their allocation of America’s largest ever and possibly last major investment in broadband.

Congrats NTIA and State Broadband Offices – List of BEAD Grant Allocations

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Congrats NTIA and State Broadband Offices: List of BEAD Grant Allocations

Congrats NTIA and State Broadband Offices - List of BEAD Grant Allocations

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<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Performance_Test_and_Survey_1_f8f7c02c99/Performance_Test_and_Survey_1_f8f7c02c99.svg?updated_at=2023-05-08T18:46:14.458Z" alt="Map Figure"></div><h2><sup>State Broadband Offices: The NTIA provided crystal clarity in the Model Challenge Process. You can (and <u>should</u>) incorporate speed test data in order to avoid pitfalls in your BEAD implementation. Here’s how to do it effectively while meeting acceptable evidence requirements.</sup></h2><p>NTIA’s excellent guidance makes it crystal clear: Unlike <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/fabric" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FCC’s Fabric</a>, you can (and should) incorporate speed tests in your State’s BEAD <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/challenge-process" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Challenge Process</a>. You are encouraged to seek this critical form of evidence, as long as the data you gather meet acceptable evidence guidelines.</p><p>Speed tests (or performance tests, as we like to call them) are your office’s best chance at getting objective ground truth about the broadband reality for locations and areas.</p><p>How can you use performance tests in your office’s challenge process? There are two paths you can take:</p><ol><li>Embrace performance tests for validating service levels and challenges to help your office make defensible, objective decisions in your BEAD allocation.</li><li>Ignore performance tests for your validation (but please note that providers can still submit tests to you as evidence).</li></ol><p>Data-driven broadband offices will choose #1 – using performance tests to make better choices. The best broadband offices will go a step further and supply the tools that help Permissible Challengers generate NTIA-compliant acceptable evidence in performance tests generated in a simple-to-use, centralized portal.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Why Should You Bother with Speed Tests?</h3><p>NTIA gave you a strong, thoughtful framework in which to develop and assert your own evidentiary standard. Why should you bother with speed tests? Because source-of-truth observational data like the kinds speed tests provide give you the best opportunity to validate provider claims of service. Gathering evidence around observed performance lets you shape a more objective view of where and to what extent you should focus your team’s efforts and BEAD resources. A well-executed evidence process can set your office up for the objectivity you’ll need to deliver generations of success.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/generations_and_legacy_5c4a17a52a/generations_and_legacy_5c4a17a52a.svg?updated_at=2023-05-08T16:17:51.857Z" alt="Generations and Legacy Figure"></div><p>Providers can use speed tests in rebuttals.&nbsp;</p><p>You can use speed tests to build your understanding of broadband reality.<br>You can specify that Permissible Challengers leverage your test.&nbsp;</p><p>If you deploy your own, you’ll have a much better shot at achieving success with BEAD</p><p>How will you get defensible, compliant evidence? The NTIA Model Challenge Process defines a clear but high bar for collecting source-of-truth (aka “citizen-sourced”) service quality evidence. It crystallizes what’s allowable and sets a specific standard for acceptable evidence.</p><p>While NTIA provides crystal clear guidance on what counts as acceptable evidence, it’s up to your state how you go about obtaining it. It’s up to you to supply the tools and framework in which you collect data for your Challenge Process from Permissible Challengers.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p><h3>When Should Our State / Territory Gather Performance Test Data?&nbsp;</h3><p>If you decide to go the data-driven, proactive route for your BEAD implementation, in order to give your office the best chance at using performance data, it’s recommended that you get your Performance Test &amp; Survey set up right away.&nbsp;</p><p>Within NTIA’s 10 phase challenge process, your office must include the following four step-by-step phases within its challenge process:</p><ol><li>Eligible locations published<ul><li>Include evaluation criteria, and registration process.</li><li>NTIA lets your office define its own “rigorous evidentiary review.”&nbsp;</li><li>While you can propose a deviation from NTIA’s guidelines, they might not approve the deviation, and they’ve already thought of everything you need to run an empirically defensible process. So it’s best to focus on making the most of your time and resources in facilitating the collection of acceptable evidence from Permissible Challengers.&nbsp;</li><li>Offer your office’s official challenge process with challenger login and testing framework.</li><li>Publish your Broadband Audits to show where your evidence suggests that service is underserved, unserved, or unavailable.</li></ul></li><li>Challenge phase<ul><li>You can proactively seek performance test data as validation of provider claims where you deem necessary, for example, for any provider submitting more than 1,000 challenges that do not match your broadband audit data.</li></ul></li><li>Rebuttal<ul><li>Avoid Wait &amp; See during this period. Use this time to get additional validation.</li><li>You can also set an expiration on challenges received if evidence isn’t submitted to reject .</li></ul></li><li>Final determination<ul><li>Incorporate performance tests and survey data gathered into your Challenge Process Coordinator.</li><li>Publish your sustained challenges and rejected challenges with reason code(s) to your public map and provider management system.</li></ul></li></ol><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Who Can Submit Challenges?</h3><p>NTIA defines who can submit challenges to states, known as Permissible Challengers:</p><ul><li>Local governments including but not limited to counties, municipalities, regional organizations and councils of local governments<br>Tribal governments – but bear in mind that you must follow <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/tribal-data-sovereignty" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tribal Data Sovereignty</a> guidelines while cooperating with Tribal governments.</li><li>Providers with service in your state / territory.</li><li>Note that providers can submit their own tests in rebuttal, but that such submissions need to meet acceptable evidence standards, and must demonstrate at least 80% of target upload and download speeds.</li><li>Non-profit organizations such as state-specific associations (for instance MERIT Network), or national allies such as Superhighway EDU, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Connect Humanity, and more.</li></ul><p>At this time, individuals may not submit challenges directly, but states can work with on-the-ground partners using permission-based tools in order to ensure efficient, centralized aggregation of submissions.</p><p>The rest of this quick post outlines how your state’s office can meet NTIA’s higher bar for acceptable evidence, along with a few tips for making the most of your state’s evidence discovery process without needing to hire an Army.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Get Defensible, Transparent, NTIA-Compliant Speed Tests</h2><h3>1. You Need More than a Map</h3><p>Your map is an important tool, but you need much more than a map in order to make effective use of speed tests.&nbsp;</p><p>In addition to your map, your published challenge process site should include:</p><ul><li>Guidelines that clearly explain your evidentiary standard.</li><li>A way for Permissible Challengers to register with your office.</li><li>Your broadband audits showing Community Anchor Institutions, last known service level, and more.</li><li>Your office’s official testing tool, for Permissible Challengers to utilize.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure>
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<figcaption>Ready Performance Test &amp; Survey includes three tests in one, plus configurable survey. 100% customized to your identity, 100% compliant with NTIA acceptable evidence guidelines.</figcaption>
</figure></div><h3>2. Require Permissible Challengers to register with your office</h3><p>Provide a secure login for your Permissible Challengers (local govs, Tribal govs, non-profits, and providers). This way, your team has a structured relationship with potential challengers and applicants from the outset, giving you the ability to validate and approve Permissible Challengers in an orderly, equitable way.</p><p>Through your Challenge Process Coordinator you can run an efficient, centralized process that produces NTIA-compliant acceptable evidence as the default – dramatically reducing your time and energy spent collating data through email attachments, freeing you up to think strategically and provide extra coverage to small, local &amp; <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/non-traditional-broadband-provider" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">non-traditional providers</a>.</p><p>The best systems let the entity seamlessly roll over into grant applications without separate credentials.&nbsp;</p><p>Make sure your system rigorously secures any evidence gathered.&nbsp;</p><p>Off-the-shelf sales force systems will not provide the specific workflows you’ll need to coordinate among challengers.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><video controls="" autoplay="" muted="">
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<figcaption>Challenge Process Coordinator lets you sustain challenges, request more evidence, set expirations on unsubstantiated claims, and lets you coordinate messaging from a single system rather than a chaotic process across dozens of communications channels.</figcaption>
</figure></div><h3>3. Supply your performance test &amp; survey for Permissible Challengers</h3><p>Your office will realistically receive more than 100,000 challenges from dozens of challengers. Some offices will receive 1,000,000 challenges from hundreds of challengers.&nbsp;</p><p>While Permissible Challengers can supply their own testing infrastructure, making your own official, recommended Performance Test &amp; Survey available to Permissible Challengers with clear usage brings many key advantages to your office:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Ensures the highest quality, NTIA-compliant data is generated.</li><li>Avoids wasting everyone’s time and energy with fragmented tests, non-acceptable evidence, and messy back and forth.&nbsp;</li><li>Makes it easy to coordinate with Tribes while respecting Tribal Data Sovereignty.</li><li>Removes the barrier to submitting compliant evidence: It will be difficult for small, local and non-traditional providers to build their own compliant tests since no off-the-shelf-tests meet NTIA’s acceptable evidence criteria.</li></ul><h3>4. Be Inclusive:&nbsp;</h3><p>Making your challenge process inclusive helps you empower small, local &amp; non-traditional providers while avoiding unnecessary lawsuits and process delays. At a minimum, your Performance Test &amp; Survey and Challenge Process Coordinator should:</p><ul><li>Meet Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines.</li><li>Include SMS &amp; voice options for those without internet.</li><li>Work with Tribal govs to ensure participation while respecting Tribal Data Sovereignty.</li></ul><h3>5. Go on the Offensive / Outbound FTW</h3><p>Since you only get one chance to validate your broadband audit and any provider rebuttals, you might as well take the opportunity to verify service quality in areas you know or suspect to be historically underserved.</p><p>Consider reaching out to occupants of BSLs in historically underserved areas if challengers have submitted large quantities of challenges. The “trust but verify” principle would mean using the set of Broadband Serviceable Locations contained in of challenges from all challengers who submitted more than 1,000 disputed challenges as your outbound mailing list.&nbsp;</p><p>This effort will take a little printing budget and team effort but can pay of in dividends for your office since:</p><ul><li>Build it and they will come is not an effective strategy – distribution is required to get results.</li><li>As a gov entity you can send out mailers at &nbsp;rate and special print costs, for sub 10 cents apiece.</li><li>For a relatively small amount of money you can dramatically increase the resolution of your understanding of not only service availability but also affordability, quality of experience, and more.&nbsp;</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure>
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<figcaption>Build your office’s outbound campaign. Include snail mail to BSL occupants in historically marginalized areas.</figcaption>
</figure></div><h3>6. Off the shelf solutions won’t work: you’ll need to buy or build</h3><p>Read NTIA’s challenge process guidance and Model Challenge Process carefully. Acceptable evidence has a high bar. You are encouraged to develop your office’s evidentiary standard on the minimums supplied by NTIA. You should:</p><ul><li>Use more than one speed test. Two is better than one, but Performance Test &amp; Survey includes three complete tests.&nbsp;</li><li>While no single test is perfect, running multiple tests together in one shot combined with survey data can help you to build up your understanding in an empirically defensible way.</li><li>However, taking two speed tests can be a challenge for BSL occupants, so the experience should be designed to fire the tests in serial (as running tests in parallel can produce false positives).&nbsp;</li><li>Geolocate results to the survey / test submitter.&nbsp;</li><li>But you’ll need to comply with Tribal Data Sovereignty for results gathered from Tribal stakeholders.&nbsp;</li><li>Include timestamps on tests taken in order to ensure provider rebuttals aren’t only run during extreme off-peak hours.</li></ul><p>For best results, remind test takers to take tests at specific on-peak hours, and get a time series (more than one test at different times) from BSL occupants in hotly contested areas.<br>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure>
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<figcaption>From acceptable evidence gathering to one-click export in acceptable data format, Performance Test &amp; Survey keeps your office compliant. The system also includes a comprehensive, configurable survey in order to fortify the evidence you collect.</figcaption>
</figure></div><h3>7. Go beyond up &amp; down – set your bar high</h3><p>In the theme of viewing NTIA’s guidance as minimum requirements, it’s Important to remember they do set out a basic <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/latency" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">latency</a> threshold of not-to-exceed 100ms round trip.</p><p>While BEAD uses upload and download, you are encouraged to incorporate other attributes into your evaluation process. You might as well gather other dimensions as well</p><p>Ideally your tests go deeper than general latency.</p><p>Read the <a href="https://www.bitag.org/documents/BITAG_latency_explained.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BITAG Latency Explained</a> report for a deeper understanding of why buffer-bloat &nbsp;(“working latency”) should be measured in your office’s performance diagnostics.&nbsp;</p><h3>8. View Permissible Challengers and Anchors as Partners</h3><p>While <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/community-anchor-institution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs)</a> were ignored in FCC’s Fabric, NTIA’s guidance makes abundantly clear that CAIs are very much at the table in BEAD. Your office can go beyond ensuring your CAIs have gigabit symmetrical service and empower them to help you engage BSL occupants in generating meaningful performance test &amp; survey data.</p><p>By supplying your Performance Test &amp; Survey as part of your Challenge Process Coordinator, you empower your Permissible Challengers including counties, Tribal governments, regional groups, providers, and non-profits to help your team to make objective, data-driven decisions.</p><p>If you’re required to identify CAIs, you might as well provide them with your Performance Test &amp; Survey tools and treat them as partners in collecting meaningful source-of-truth data. Performance Test &amp; Survey was developed to follow the <a href="https://broadband.money/lessons/recommendations-for-browser-based-speed-test-surveys" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Broadband Mapping Coalition’s recommended methodology</a> for broadband performance testing. States should consult the BMC recommended methodology if implementing their own performance testing systems.</p><p>Please remember you’re required to identify CAIs, including CAIs on Tribal Lands as well. When working with Tribes, please ensure your office adheres to Tribal Data Sovereignty. For help engaging Tribes in a compliant way, please ping Tribal Ready.</p><p>In addition to CAIs, Permissible Challengers including local gov, Tribal gov, non-profits and providers can be major allies in driving adoption of your data-driven efforts – if you provide them the bridge between your office and their efforts.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>What's next?</h2><p>NTIA’s provided crystal clarity: you can and should incorporate performance data into your Challenge Process. It’s up to you how you get there. Whether you build your own technology from scratch or license the Ready State Grantor Platform, you can, should, and must figure out how to incorporate source-of-truth evidence in your challenge process in order to make the most of your BEAD resources. It’s the best way for you to get to the bottom of where service really is needed.</p>

Get the source-of-truth data you need in order to make the most of your BEAD while meeting NTIA acceptable evidence guidelines.

Get the source-of-truth data you need in order to make the most of your BEAD while meeting NTIA acceptable evidence guidelines

The State Broadband Office’s Guide to Speedtests for Challenge Process

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Get Great Speed Test Data for Your Challenge Process

Get Defensible, Transparent, NTIA-Compliant Speed Tests

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</div><h2>How to encourage competition, support diverse participation, and avoid lawsuits in your state’s BEAD grant program.</h2><p>Over the course of the next five years, all of the states, territories and Native American tribes of the U.S., are preparing to receive and distribute a historic, unprecedented package of $42.45 billion in collective funding for broadband internet expansion projects that help close the “digital divide” within their borders.</p><p>But as they move through this process, the states will need to demonstrate to the federal government that they are not just giving the money to the “usual suspects” — large monopoly cable providers, internet service providers (ISPs) and traditional telecoms we are all familiar with — not without considering other, smaller, more local and independent, or nontraditional, alternatives as well.</p><p>That’s because this money state &nbsp;and territories are eligible for comes with some important strings attached: <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/broadband-equity-access-and-deployment-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Broadband Equity, Access And Deployment Program (BEAD)</a>, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as part of the $1 trillion Infrastructure Act passed in 2021. States, territories, and tribal governments can in some cases also use funding from the <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/capital-projects-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Projects Fund</a> to build out broadband projects, and combine these funds with their BEAD dollars. (States, territories and tribes will be used interchangeably from now on in this article.)</p><p>BEAD is the largest investment in broadband infrastructure and digital equity in our nation’s history, and it was created expressly to provide broadband connectivity to currently <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/unserved-location" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unserved</a> (lacking internet service at speeds of 25 megabits-per-second download/3 mbps for upload) and <a href="https://broadband.money/broadband-grant-terms/underserved-location" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">underserved</a> (lacking speeds of 100 mbps download/20 mbps upload) locations. It was also created to ensure that “community anchor institutions” receive gigabit broadband service. &nbsp;“Community anchor institutions are defined by the NTIA as entities “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, the incarcerated, and aged individuals.”</p><h2>Who must states include when allocating BEAD and other broadband funding?</h2><p>&nbsp;NTIA’s FAQ says that states “may not exclude cooperatives, nonprofit organizations, public-private partnerships, private companies, public or private utilities, public utility districts, or local governments” from being considered for BEAD funding as the states move to issue it to subgrantees who will actually build out the network infrastructure and services for potential customers within each state’s borders.</p><p>In other words, states are left with a multi-tier goal: get fast broadband service offerings to individuals and communities that lack such services , but do so in a way that is inclusive and accounts for the opinions and experiences of specific underrepresented groups, while also being sure to consider the needs of smaller providers to accomplish this goal.</p><p>Based on these goals and requirements, it is clear that state broadband offices face enormous coordination and communication challenges. States need to manage and interface with a wide and numerous array of stakeholders as they go about deciding how to distribute their BEAD (and Digital Equity) grant funds.</p><h2>Who are the small, local, and non-traditional providers?</h2><p>Looking at the number of smaller ISPs that could be potential BEAD award recipients, there are actually quite a few for state broadband offices to choose from: in total, there are at least 2,201 ISPs in the U.S. that offer residential internet service at speeds of at least 200 kbps in at least one direction, according to a recent report by <a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-22-103A1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)</a>.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Applicant_Mgmt_interface_ecfd94225d/Applicant_Mgmt_interface_ecfd94225d.svg?updated_at=2023-04-24T21:06:29.128Z" alt="Applicant Interface Figure">
</div><p>Only 11 of these ISPs offer internet service to areas encompassing 5% or more of the total U.S. population, according to <a href="https://www.telecompetitor.com/fcc-finds-11-isps-that-cover-5-or-more-of-the-u-s-population-number-11-is-a-surprise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Telecompetitor</a>. That means the remaining 2,190 ISPs offer smaller service area footprints, and therefore are likely to be smaller regional companies, utilities, cooperatives, utilities, nonprofits, municipal networks, and other entities that the states should consider when reviewing BEAD subgrant applications.&nbsp;</p><p>These smaller ISPs are found across the entire country and go by many names and use many different organizational structures. New York City, for example, is home to the volunteer-run <a href="https://www.nycmesh.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NYC Mesh</a>. In addition to gas and power service, the Ohio-based utility <a href="https://www.consolidated.coop/fiber-service-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Consolidated Cooperative</a> offers internet service to customers in the Midwest. In Oregon, the cities of Monmouth and Independence joined forces to launch <a href="https://www.minetfiber.com/about_us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MINET</a>, “a fiber-to-the-home provider of internet and voice services.”</p><p>Clearly, there are plenty of existing small and local internet service providers that have demonstrated the ability to build out the infrastructure and possess the organization, knowledge and expertise necessary to connect customers, even in the shadows of more well-funded and better-resourced larger ISPs.</p><p>On the surface, these facts seem excellent for states looking to hand out BEAD money, as it means there are many smaller providers to evaluate as potential subgrantee award recipients.</p><p>However, the sheer abundance of these smaller providers actually makes it tough for states to identify and include them in their BEAD subgrantee process.</p><p>There are fundamental questions that each broadband office must address — How can and should state broadband offices identify the smaller ISPs, reach out to them, and make them aware of the BEAD funding opportunity? How to get them to submit an application to the state broadband office in accordance with the state’s deadlines, timelines, and processes? And how to ensure that these providers comply with all of the state’s and federal government’s numerous regulatory and compliance requirements for BEAD funding?</p><p>States will undoubtedly find it challenging to connect with, keep track of, and keep smaller providers informed, updated, appraised, and included in their BEAD and other broadband funding opportunities, especially when these smaller providers may not all use the same communications channels — yet states cannot afford to leave them out of their process, or risk the ire of NTIA or ineffectiveness of the BEAD program</p><p>A state that only included large telcos/cable giants/ISPs in its list of subgrantee award applicants to the NTIA would likely be viewed as exclusionary and anti-competitive.</p><h2>How states need to document their coordination</h2><p>The NTIA further wants a state’s broadband office or other similar entity in charge of distributing the funds to document all local coordination and outreach activities by providing a detailed description of its efforts to engage local governments, community groups, underrepresented population as part of the state’s requisite Five-Year Action Plan and continue throughout the entirety of the program, including the state’s Initial Proposal and Final Proposal.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Pyramid_c446ec9789/Pyramid_c446ec9789.svg?updated_at=2023-04-24T21:06:28.719Z" alt="Pyramid Figure">
</div><p>Throughout it all, NTIA will be evaluating states to see how transparently and effectively they are coordinating and collaborating with these local stakeholders.</p><p>Clearly, building a process that only includes large telecom companies will not fly if a state wants to remain compliant, and receive and deploy its funds without risking running afoul of the federal government requirements.</p><p>Historically, large cable companies, telecom giants, and major internet service providers have failed to deliver results when given broadband grants, as <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/2021/07/14/weve-spent-billions-provide-broadband-rural-areas-what-failed-wisconsin/7145014002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">newspapers have reported</a>. Smaller, non-traditional, and local providers bring variety, innovation, and a willingness to get the job done.</p><p>Yet working with small, local and non-traditional providers can be a real challenge without a data-centric platform. States will need to get very good at outreach and provider relationship management very quickly.</p><h2>What states should do to make sure smaller, local, non-traditional providers are included and addressed in the process?&nbsp;</h2><p>The Ready Grantor Platform from Ready.net is a secure, one-stop-shop web application that helps states ensure that they reach small, local, non-traditional providers.&nbsp;</p><p>By directing smaller non-traditional ISPs and local groups to a state’s Ready Grantor Platform, states can ensure these smaller entities will have a chance to participate in the BEAD allocation process.</p><p>That’s because the Ready Grantor Platform includes easy-to-use interfaces, clear standards, application guidance, direct messaging and tools for connecting the state broadband office with any of its authorized intermediaries, stakeholders or potential BEAD applicants — and vice versa.&nbsp;</p><p>Applicants can see exactly how their proposed projects align with state objectives and scoring criteria. Applicants and states can utilize Ready’s underlying geospatial data sets to make informed choices, for instance, socio-demographic information.</p><p>It delivers expert knowledge to applicants when and where it’s needed most – in the application portal and throughout the application process. Applicants will be able to follow along in real-time as they prepare, submit, receive feedback or questions on, and ultimately learn the fate of their application.&nbsp;</p><p>Applicants can use the Ready Grantor Portal to connect with the grantor, submit challenges, apply for grants, and manage their grant reporting.</p><p>Thanks to the clear interface and easy built-in communications tools between the state broadband office and applicants, both parties can stay in constant contact.</p><p>Applicants can see how well their project plans align with the state’s priority broadband objectives, and can make adjustments necessary to secure their fair share of the grant funding needed to connect their communities.</p><p>For states, Ready Grantor makes it easy to manage the influx ofBEAD subgrant applications from a diverse pool, performing an “apples to apples” comparison of them, objectively evaluating hundreds or thousands of applicants efficiently and equitably.</p><p>It is 100% customizable to a state’s vision, guidelines and identity for its BEAD funding. It follows the NTIA’s relevant and applicable guidelines, and allows states to get and stay on the same page with their stakeholders.&nbsp;</p><p>With tools including built-in messaging and the <a href="http://broadband.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Broadband.io Community</a> channels and support for processes ranging from Applicant Experience to Local Coordination and Letters of Community Support, the Ready Grantor Platform makes it easy for states to engage in direct communication with applicants and stakeholders — one on one, one to many, many to one, and all permutations that a state and applicant may need.&nbsp;</p><p>States can also hold recurring Office Hours with prospective applicants. States that leverage this technology will do a better job engaging applicants more inclusively.&nbsp;</p><p>Little wonder the states that are already using Ready Grantor Platform, like Mississippi, have rave reviews for it: “Ready is such an asset for BEAM (Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi),” says Sally Doty, Mississippi’s broadband director. “We work closely with their team on a daily basis and continue to be impressed with the tools customized for our State. Their team is responsive and provides an innovative platform for the entire grant process.”</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gqiUVQPDOYw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><h2>Get the most from your resources</h2><p>Make sure skilled, capable providers of all sizes have what they need to apply for your state’s BEAD funds.</p><p>The Ready Grantor Platform is a comprehensive solution that offers built-in strength tests, mapping, speedtest and socioeconomic data layers, geospatial information from the U.S. Census and multiple additional sources, organized tab views, private and public messaging, and more.</p><p>It provides a fully guided grant journey customized to small business owner requirements. The platform has a state-specific scoring algorithm that ranks applications based on their suitability. It also allows for seamless communication with grant applicants. The platform offers scalable local coordination, including chat support, user forums, and DMs with applicants. It is an all-in-one solution and platform that simplifies the entire grant process for BEAD.</p><p>Use it for your state broadband office now.</p>

Make sure skilled, capable providers of all sizes have what they need to apply for your state’s BEAD funds.

Get Ready to Work with Small, Local, and Non-traditional Providers

Building a Legacy of Success

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Building a Fair and Inclusive Process

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</div><h2>Boost productivity without busting your budget</h2><p>All of the states, territories, and Native American tribes that comprise the United States have been given a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand and improve internet service within their borders. It's the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD). &nbsp;BEAD represents $42.45 billion in grant funding from the $1 trillion Infrastructure bill that is being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). BEAD is designed to fund broadband infrastructure projects that seek to connect locations that are presently unserved (lacking internet service at speeds of 25 megabits-per-second download/3 mbps for upload) and underserved (lacking speeds of 100 mbps download/20 mbps upload).</p><p>The NTIA has already made its initial planning funding allocations to the broadband offices of states, territories and tribes (referred to collectively as “states” hereafter), and will announce additional funding allocations throughout the remainder of 2023 — great news for internet service providers (ISPs) and cooperatives seeking to build out broadband infrastructure, and especially their potential customers. &nbsp;</p><p>However, securing funding is only the first step. An incredibly complex, multi-stage, and highly-regulated process lies ahead for state broadband offices motivated to take advantage of this opportunity to improve the availability of the most critical infrastructure of the 21st century for their residents.&nbsp;</p><p>Now, with small staffs, broadband offices must continue along the process and tackle four other major ongoing work areas:</p><ol><li>coordinate with hundreds or thousands of communities and local organizations,&nbsp;</li><li>run an open, effective, and compliant challenge process&nbsp;</li><li>evaluate grant applications for sub grantees</li><li>establish reliable, and compliant, reporting systems and tools</li></ol><p>What if there was a platform that allowed state broadband offices to complete all of these four work areas securely, efficiently, effectively, and easily — without breaking their limited budgets? The good news is, such a platform exists. Read on to learn more about all the tasks and how they can be completed.</p><h2>Coordination with hundreds of local stakeholders</h2><p>As part of the funding requirements, each state, territory, and the District of Columbia must submit a five-year action plan to NTIA that outlines how they will use the funds to achieve the program goals. The plan must address 13 additional requirements, including a needs assessment, a stakeholder engagement strategy, a workforce development plan, a broadband mapping plan, and a performance measurement plan.</p><p>It must be informed by collaboration with local and regional entities, such as municipalities, counties, tribes, nonprofits, and broadband providers. Developing a comprehensive and realistic plan that meets all the requirements and reflects the diverse needs and interests of the stakeholders is a complex and time-consuming task that requires coordination and expertise.</p><p>Another place where local coordination is important: securing matching funds. A 25% match is required to use all the BEAD program funds. However, some states and territories may face difficulties in raising matching funds from their own budgets and resources. The BEAD program allows matching funds from federal regional commissions and authorities, or from other federal funds that were provided for broadband deployment under previous legislation. Still, government broadband offices must explore alternative ways to secure matching funds, such as public-private partnerships, bonds, or taxes.</p><p>But how are you supposed to keep track of all these stakeholders and coordinate between them? If a state broadband office is using a bunch of different tools, they’re likely to become quickly overwhelmed, disorganized, and confused. What’s needed is an all-in-one solution.</p><h2>Running an open, effective, and compliant challenge process</h2><p>Both BEAD and the separate but related federal Recovery Act Capital Projects Fund (CPF) require states to administer a process by which local residents and organizations can challenge the state’s official broadband service map in order to prevent duplication of efforts and to ensure projects are prioritized in accordance with federal eligibility requirements.</p><p>Specifically, the NTIA requires all eligible entities to design and conduct their own “transparent, evidence-based, and expeditious” challenge processes separately, before allocating their BEAD funds to subgrantees. The exact timeline for the broadband challenge process will vary depending on when the state filed its initial proposal and when NTIA approves or disapproves it.</p><p>First, the state must publicly publish its initial broadband grant proposal and its proposed list of unserved and underserved locations on its website and notify potential challengers of the opportunity to submit challenges. The state will need to launch its public challenge process including clear criteria and procedures for accepting, reviewing, and resolving challenges, and allow 60 days for potential challengers to submit.</p><p>The state must consider all timely, valid challenges and update its initial proposal with a list of unserved and underserved locations accordingly. The state must then submit its updated initial proposal with identified unserved and underserved locations to NTIA - along with a summary of the challenges received and how they were resolved.</p><p>The NTIA will review the updated initial proposal and the list of unserved and underserved locations and may request additional information or clarification from the state, which the state broadband office is expected to be in a position to provide. Finally, the NTIA will approve or disapprove the updated initial proposal and the list of unserved and underserved locations based on the program requirements and standards.</p><p>What information may a state consider from challengers? According to the NTIA, the state broadband office “may decide to accept a broader range of information that may bear on broadband service in an area than is considered in an FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC) challenge.” In other words, more information than just speed and latency.</p><p>The challenge process ensures that the allocation of BEAD program funds addresses the most critical broadband gaps in each state and avoids duplicating or overbuilding existing broadband networks. It also provides an opportunity for local stakeholders to participate in broadband planning and decision-making.</p><p>Running the challenge process is a major operation for state broadband offices unto itself: How should states invite and keep track of all challenges and who made them? How can they view, analyze and approve or disapprove of them — using what tools, software, or applications? And how will the state broadband office ensure the security, reliability, and compliance of the challenge process with state and federal guidelines? What’s needed is a platform that is tailor-made for running a challenge process with limited staff, resources, and budget, yet optimizes both openness and security for participants.&nbsp;</p><h2>Evaluating grant applications from subgrantees&nbsp;</h2><p>Once a state has run its challenge process, it needs to take the final step toward actioning its broadband funds: deciding who is awarded the money.</p><p>This involves evaluating applications from potential subgrantee recipients based on how they are best equipped to deploy the funds and responsibly connect the state’s unserved and underserved locations to high-quality, affordable broadband services.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Feasibility_Documents_91de45f41a/Feasibility_Documents_91de45f41a.svg?updated_at=2023-04-18T18:17:38.332Z" alt="Feasibility Documents">
</div><p>To do this, states must consider:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>how potential subgrantees align with the state’s five-year action plan</li><li>feasibility and sustainability of proposed broadband infrastructure projects</li><li>expected outcomes and impacts</li><li>cost-effectiveness and efficiency</li><li>compliance with program rules and standards, including the Fair Labor Standards Act,</li><li>contribution to advancing broadband equity, access, and deployment in the state<br>The state broadband office must also ensure that subgrantees meet the eligibility requirements for receiving BEAD funds.</li></ul><p>Again, the question for states becomes, “how do we keep track of all these subgrantee applications and the data contained therein in a secure, easily accessible, and useful way? Spreadsheets and manual data entry won’t cut it with the sheer volume of subgrantee applicants and cross referencing a state will need to do.&nbsp;</p><h2>Establishing reporting and compliance tools and processes</h2><p>Throughout the BEAD Program, NTIA will conduct ongoing monitoring of each state’s progress against its plans and ensure that the requirements of the BEAD program and larger Infrastructure bill are met. States will also be required to comply with reporting requirements and monitor their subgrantees — a lot to place on understaffed and overworked offices.</p><p>Among these reporting requirements are an initial report the state must submit to NTIA within 90 days of receiving its BEAD funds. This report should cover how a state intends to use the funds and how those uses comply with the BEAD goals of connecting underserved and unserved locations and ultimately, the entire country to broadband.</p><p>States must also submit semi-annual reports to the NTIA, beginning a year after receiving grant funds and continuing till all the funds have been distributed to subgrantees. These semi-annual reports must describe how states are using the funds, the services being provided by them, and the number of locations where broadband service is being made available as a result. States will also need to certify that they are complying with the reporting requirements and any additional ones from the NTIA’s Assistant Secretary.</p><p>Subgrantees must submit their own reports to the state at least twice a year, proving effective utilization of the funds they received and describing the progress and purpose of every project they carried out with them; as well as any additional requirements the state decides to impose on them. These subgrantee reports must include a list of service locations, the percentage of customers using the service, and the type of facility being constructed and the speed of the broadband service being offered.</p><p>It’s the state’s responsibility to corral these reports and ultimately ensure funds are properly used by subgrantees. That’s another big item on the state broadband office’s long to-do list.</p><h2>There’s a lot to do. So how can states do it all effectively and securely?&nbsp;</h2><p>Clearly, states are about to be slammed with work to comply with BEAD. Yet many face hiring caps and limited budgets.</p><p>BEAD is the largest broadband program in history, with hundreds of moving parts. But, on average, state broadband offices are staffed with teams of five (5) people. Hiring outside consultants can help. But consultants alone can’t entirely address the challenge as they are typically are limited in the total workload they can take on and time they can devote to a particular project</p><p>There are two possible paths for states to walk: succumb to the workload without doing anything to empower themselves and deliver mediocrity (or worse); or, rise to the challenge and get ready with a digital platform that helps their office’s team do the most possible good with granted funds. This program only happens once, and when the money's gone — it’s gone for good — making it all the more imperative for states get their plans and implementations correct on the first try.</p><p>Thankfully, there is a turnkey, easy-to-use, flexible and fully customizable solution for states: the Ready Grantor Platform from Ready.net, offering full lifecycle support for every step of their journey. Using this secure, web-based application that is 100% compliant with NTIA and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines, states have access to a single platform to achieve their broadband vision. Using it, teams can automate many routine tasks and focus on more important decision making, selections and allocations.</p><p>Save time, empower your team, follow along with the journey of your grant awardees with integrated reporting, and get the results you need to distribute BEAD funding effectively and in compliance with regulations.&nbsp;</p>

Use tools to solve Local Coordination, Challenge Process, Grant Applications, and more.

Use tools to solve Local Coordination, Challenge Process, Grant Applications, and More

State Broadband Offices Use Tech to Do More with Less

Force-multiply your team without hiring an army

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Scaling You: How Your State Broadband Office Can Use Tech to Do More with Less

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</div><h2>Achieve Your Vision for BEAD &amp; Beyond</h2><p>How will your state broadband office make the most of the largest investment in broadband funding in a generation?</p><p>That’s the question facing states, territories, and Native American tribal governments (used interchangeably in this article from here on out) as the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) prepares to distribute $42.45 billion in broadband grant funding through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program for unserved and underserved communities.</p><p>States face an overwhelming amount of information with a tight deadline. The NTIA’s announcement of initial allocation funds is scheduled by June 30, 2023 and initial proposal submissions are due 180 days afterward. There's a lot of pressure to build a defensible plan for how to direct their broadband funding in compliance with the NTIA guidelines.</p><p>Ready Grant Optimizer from Ready.net is a next-generation solution to a very hard problem set states face. Ready Grant Optimizer puts you in control of your state’s criteria selection based on the priorities set by NTIA and allows you to uncover key insights.&nbsp;</p><h2>The Competitive Grant and Subgrantee Process, Explained</h2><p>Once states get their initial funding allocations from the NTIA, they are hardly finished with their tasks. In fact, in many ways, the hard work is just getting started: states must choose the final recipients of the funding — the organizations that will actually get the money to build out broadband — according to specific criteria from the NTIA outlined on <a href="https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/BEAD-Frequently-Asked-Questions-%28FAQs%29_Version-2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pages 46-48 of this document</a> and the <a href="https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/Subgrantee_Selection_Primer_A_Guide_for_Eligible_Entities.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">entirety of this document</a>.</p><p>Among the mandated criteria are that the initial 20% of grant funding a state receives must be distributed to areas “consisting of at least 80% unserved locations” and “in locations in which the percentage of individuals with a household income at or below 150% of the poverty line applicable to a family of the size involved.”</p><p>After that, it’s up to the states to decide which “subgrantees,” or grant recipients, get the remaining funds through a “fair, open, and competitive” application process that the state broadband office or other state-level government agency is in charge of organizing, hosting, running and maintaining.</p><p>Think about the popular singing contests on TV — The Voice, American Idol, and The Masked Singer — where judges must whittle down the best of a whole large group of qualified singers. Now multiply that by thousands or tens of thousands, and you have some idea of the challenge facing state broadband offices, who do not have nearly as many staffers or employees as a popular TV series. The state broadband subgrantee competition is a lot like this, except with internet service providers (ISPs) large and small instead of singers.</p><p>In this case, those ISPs may be non-traditional providers such as cooperatives and nonprofits, &nbsp;or even private companies.</p><p>The state will need to collect a range of information from them, including the organization name, the applicant, the origin, the status of the application, the date on which they applied, the amount of funding they are seeking, how much match funding they are bringing to the table (if any), and arguably most importantly, the actual service area they plan to build in. Among the documents that the state can collect are audited financial statements of publicly traded parent companies. And, state broadband offices must evaluate grant applicants’ compliance with fair labor practices.</p><p>Also, the states must describe the process in an initial proposal and final proposal documents filed to the NTIA, prioritizing unserved areas and ensuring coverage when all is said and done and the funds are all allocated.</p><p>Therefore, in order to effectively use its funding allocation in compliance with the NTIA and other federal reporting mandates, sate broadband offices must identify the many different locations in a state that are eligible for broadband funding — be it the unserved or underserved — and compare this to the subgrantee applications to find out which subgrantees will get the job done of connecting these areas.</p><p>It’s a difficult, demanding, highly detailed task that is very tough for states to even begin to approach, let alone get right. Fortunately, there is a solution from Ready.net: the Ready Grant Optimizer, part of Ready.net’s Grant Application Management Engine.</p><p>Using this and other Ready tools, states can deploy enterprise BOSS (Back Office Secret Sauce - a full business support system/operating support system) to help states manage their relationship with grant-seeking applicants directly through a simple, clean, powerful, easy-to-use cloud-based tool.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Pyramid_1_9f05953271/Pyramid_1_9f05953271.svg?updated_at=2023-04-10T18:21:40.304Z" alt="Pyramid Figure">
</div><h2>What is The Ready Grant Optimizer?&nbsp;</h2><p>The Ready Grant Optimizer is a helpful tool that offers a one-stop-shop solution for not only managing your state’s subgrantee selection process, but is also part of the larger suite of tools Ready.net offers that together will enable your office to implement and manage your state’s entire comprehensive broadband plan, start-to-finish.</p><p>In particular, the Ready Grant Optimizer allows you to model target areas of broadband grants investment dollars with precision using dozens of data sets.</p><p>This tool follows both NTIA and FCC guidelines and is 100% compliant, but it is also configurable to your state’s policies and goals when it comes to broadband funding allocations.</p><p>By using the Ready Grant Optimizer, you can eliminate guesswork and politics and set the stage for objective management and evaluation of grant application submissions. Based on an algorithm that unifies the complex data needed to make subgrantee awards, the Ready Grant Optimizer enables state broadband offices the ability to easily share, validate, and defend their decisions.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u3pKFXRY60o" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><h2>How the Ready Grant Optimizer Helps You Manage Subgrantees</h2><p>You can view all of your grant applicants and applications in a single table view, click into each one to find out more information such as their organization, applicant name, where they filed the application, the status of their application, when they applied, the area they plan to serve, and much more. Then, you can cross reference this information with your state’s broadband service map on Ready.net’s mapping and data collection platform, which includes comprehensive speed test and demographic information, ensuring that you are evaluating the grant applicant with all of the information and context you need to make a decision to approve or deny their funding application.</p><p>It’s a built-from-scratch solution specifically designed and customized for state broadband offices to be able to run their entire grant application process from one fast, secure, easy-to-use tool. No matter the size of your broadband office staff and the mountain of demands facing you, the Ready Grant Optimizer can make your life easier.</p><p>This tool will help you publish your criteria and target maps with confidence, so you can unlock insights and achieve unparalleled visibility into the anatomy of plans that connect the most people to affordable, quality broadband.</p><p>The Ready Grant Optimizer offers Geospatial visualizations of potential project areas in your state, empowering you to identify, prioritize, and rank areas tailored to your state's vision to address broadband needs.</p><h2>Remove Uncertainty and Indecision — Use Ready Grant Organizer to Manage Your Entire Broadband Subgrantee Allocation Process</h2><p>It can be easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis when it comes to broadband allocation. However, with the help of the Ready Grant Optimizer, you can overcome this challenge and surface your priorities. Don't leave it to chance - set your criteria and follow your state's guidelines and the federal guidelines to spotlight where best to focus. By using this tool, you can set yourself up for success and ensure that your broadband allocation will be effective and efficient.</p>

Optimize your broadband grant resources with objective, transparent decision-making tools.

Optimize your broadband grant resources with objective, transparent decision-making tools 

Optimizing Your State’s BEAD Allocation

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Get The Most from Your Broadband Grant Resources

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<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Key_Figure_Beyond_Mapping_What_s_Next_for_Your_State_Broadband_Office_5a112bbd56/Key_Figure_Beyond_Mapping_What_s_Next_for_Your_State_Broadband_Office_5a112bbd56.svg?updated_at=2023-04-11T16:55:13.211Z" alt="Map Figure"></div><h2>Mapping is the first step in your 1,000-step journey to deploy BEAD. Here’s a look ahead to what comes next</h2><p>The $42.45 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program administered by the <a href="https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/BEAD-Frequently-Asked-Questions-%28FAQs%29_Version-2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)</a> is providing states, U.S. territories, and Native American tribes with unprecedented levels of broadband funding. (Note: state/territory/tribe will be used interchangeably from here on in this article). &nbsp;</p><p>However, as state broadband offices move to accept the funds and deploy them, many have been left dwelling on the first task: mapping the current state of broadband connectivity throughout their borders.</p><p>It’s an important step, of course, as it will serve as the basis for all others to come, showing which areas and specific locations are unserved or underserved by broadband and should thus be eligible for funding.</p><p>But this is but one step among thousands states must complete to turn their federal (and state matching) dollars into actual, blazing fast broadband service needed to keep Americans connected in the modern world.</p><p>What’s next for your state’s broadband office? This piece frames the series ahead, and the state’s next set of challenges, and shows how Ready.net’s Broadband tools can help your state broadband office.&nbsp;</p><h2>Create an Initial Proposal and Final Proposal</h2><p>No, this isn’t the “Request for Initial Planning Funds” your state submitted back in August 2022. The &nbsp;“Initial Proposal” document is a distinct beast of its own, and is required to include a description of the “the competitive process” your state will “use to select subgrantees to construct broadband projects,” e.g. how is your state actually determining who gets the money, where it’s going, what it will be used for, and who it will help.</p><p>Before you send this document &nbsp;to the the NTIA, your state broadband office must allow the public the opportunity to comment and include a record of the feedback in the submitted document.</p><p>The good news is that this document isn’t due until 180 days after your state received notice of how much money the NTIA planned to award you.</p><p>One year after the NTIA approves your state’s Initial Proposal, your office will need to submit a Final Proposal through the NTIA Grants Portal at “grants.ntia.gov.” The Final Proposal must include a detailed plan for allocating grant funds throughout your state to unserved and underserved locations, as well as a timeline for the start, various in-progress phases, and completion of each project.</p><p>Your state must also provide a description of the processes for oversight and accountability to ensure proper use of the grant funds, a certification of coordination with Tribal Governments, local community organizations, and unions and worker organizationsIt must also include a description of the results of the challenge process.</p><p>The Final Proposal should also include a description of how your state broadband office is getting the participation of non-traditional broadband providers. In addition, be sure it contains the implementation status of plans related to streamlined permitting processes and cost-effective access, labor and workforce activities, utilization of minority businesses and labor surplus area firms, low-cost plan requirements. Further, it needs to address how the projects are taking into account climate change and resilience.</p><p>The NTIA will provide technical assistance to states throughout to ensure their Final Proposals meet all requirements and goals of the program.</p><p>The Final Proposal must follow a standardized format in legible font on 8 ½ by 11” paper. Figures, graphs, images, and pictures may be presented in landscape orientation and should be of a size that is easily readable or viewable.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure>
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<figcaption>Setting your office up for success: grant your team superpowers.</figcaption>
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</div><h2>Launch, Manage, and Document Your State’s Broadband Challenge Process</h2><p>Ok, so your state has been awarded some BEAD funding (at least its allocated minimum of 20%) — congratulations! And hopefully, more is on the way.</p><p>Now your state office will need to conduct and run your own transparent challenge process to allow members of the public, internet service providers (ISPs) and other organizations the chance to challenge the state’s maps and proposed funding allocations.</p><p>Specifically, state broadband offices must:</p><ul><li>Design a challenge process and get it approved by the NTIA. This was actually a necessary component of applying for funding beyond the minimum allocation, so state offices should have already taken care of this one.&nbsp;</li><li>Run the challenge for the public in their state, ensuring that it is (in the NTIA’s words) “transparent, evidence-based, and expeditious,”. This means opening up the state broadband Fabric and service maps to be challenged. Using a tool like Ready.net’s Challenge Process Coordinator can help.&nbsp;</li><li>Evaluate challenges and approve or disapprove of them based on the data provided by the challengers.&nbsp;</li><li>Then, the state broadband office/team “must notify NTIA of any modifications” to its initial funding proposal/challenge process proposal submitted earlier to qualify for funding awards, such as those “that are necessitated by successful challenges to its initial determinations.” Yet, the NTIA also reserves its own right to reject or confirm challenges.&nbsp;</li><li>Notify the NTIA of any changes in the state’s funding allocation plan at least 60 days prior to issuing the funding awards to subgrantees, including “the final classification of each unserved location, underserved location, or eligible community anchor institution within the jurisdiction” of the state/entity.</li></ul><p>Sounds like a lot — and it is. Fortunately, states have an easy one-stop-shop to turn to: the Challenge Process Coordinator from Ready.net. Learn more about that here.&nbsp;</p><h2>Next Up: Handling Your State’s Subgrantee Applications</h2><p>How is your state deciding where to allocate its BEAD funding and other sources of broadband funding (Capital Projects Fund, state matching grants, etc)?</p><p>Following the NTIA’s and Federal Communications Commission’s provisions that the initial 20% of the funding be distributed to areas “consisting of at least 80% unserved locations” and are “in &nbsp;location in which the percentage of individuals with a household income at or below 150% of the poverty line applicable to a family of the size involved.”</p><p>After that, it’s up to the states to decide which “subgrantees,” or grant recipients, get the funds, but the process the state uses to award the money must be “fair, open, and competitive” according to the NTIA and clear to applications. Also, the state broadband office must describe their process in their initial proposal and final proposal documents sent to the NTIA. And, the grant award process must abide by a long list of NTIA-established principles see on pages 46-48 of this document.</p><p>The grant process may also be awarded to middle mile infrastructure projects to reach interconnection points and ensure technical feasibility and financial sustainability.</p><p>States can accept grant applications from companies aiming to serve unserved and underserved locations collectively or separately, but they must prioritize unserved areas and ensure their coverage in the final plan. Non-traditional providers such as cooperatives, nonprofits, and private companies may apply as subgrantees, and audited financial statements of publicly traded parent companies are acceptable. State broadband offices must evaluate grant applicants’ compliance with fair labor practices.</p><p>Using Ready.net’s Grant Application Management Engine, states can deploy enterprise BOSS (business support systems/operating support systems) tools to help states manage their relationship with grant-seeking applicants directly through a simple, clean, powerful, easy-to-use web app.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure>
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<figcaption>Setting your office up for success: grant your team superpowers.</figcaption>
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</div><h2>Create and Submit Your State’s Five-Year-Plan</h2><p>According to the NTIA, the state broadband office must submit a “five-year-action plan” within 270 days of receiving its initial planning funds — less than one year. This five-year-plan must include:</p><ul><li>Details of the state’s existing broadband program or office</li><li>Additional funding sources for broadband deployment.</li><li>Existing broadband deployment efforts funded by the federal government&nbsp;</li><li>Identification of employees who will assist in implementing and administering the BEAD funds in the state</li><li>What the state determines to be obstacles or barriers to the successful implementation of the BEAD Program.</li><li>Asset inventory that catalogs broadband adoption, affordability, equity, access, and deployment activities in the plan.</li><li>Incorporate available federal, state, or local broadband availability and adoption data&nbsp;</li><li>Local and regional broadband service needs and gaps</li><li>Explain how the entire state will be able to get reliable, affordable, high-speed internet service by the end of the five years</li></ul><h2>Don’t Forget Your Reporting Requirements and Compliance!</h2><p>As your state moves through the BEAD Program, your state broadband office will need to provide the NTIA with regular reports and updates on progress, making sure the state, subgrantees and everyone they're working with is following the rules and requirements. See <a href="https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/BEAD-Frequently-Asked-Questions-%28FAQs%29_Version-2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pages 53-55 of this document</a> for more in-depth reporting information from the NTIA.</p><p>Within 90 days of receiving BEAD grant funds, state broadband offices must submit an initial report to the NTIA’s Assistant Secretary that describes the planned and actual use of funds, the planned and actual subgrant process, the establishment of mechanisms to ensure subgrantees comply with eligible uses, and any other information required by the Assistant Secretary.</p><p>States must also submit semiannual reports to track progress against approved plans and describe how grant funds were expended, each service provided, the number of locations where broadband service was made available, and the demographics of those served. The semiannual report must include an SF-425 and a Federal Financial Report and meet the requirements described in the Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions.</p><p>Your state must obtain and review the information on how their grant recipients have complied with federal labor and employment laws, and related records of any other entities involved in the project (contractors and subcontractors), including how they complied (or not) when working on broadband deployment projects in the last three years.</p><p>Additionally, your state office may consider the subgrantee's historical use of contracting and subcontracting arrangements and examples of past performance in similar projects. The subgrantee's plan for ensuring compliance with fair labor practices should include how they will ensure compliance in their own labor and employment practices, as well as those of their contractors and subcontractors. It should also include information on applicable wage scales and payment practices and how workplace safety committees will be implemented.</p><p>Finally, within one year of expending all grant funds received, states must submit a Final Report that describes how the funds were expended, each service provided, the number of locations where broadband service was made available, and the demographics of those served. The Final Report must also include reports received from subgrantees, and certify that the state complied with all requirements and additional reporting requirements prescribed by the Assistant Secretary.</p><p>Ready.net’s new Ongoing Reporting and Compliance tool, coming in 2024, manages the state’s ongoing relationship with applicants and all of their reporting and compliance requirements with entities such as NTIA, FCC and others.&nbsp;</p><h2>Call to Action</h2><p>As state broadband offices gear up to deploy the $42.45 billion federal BEAD program, they need to begin thinking beyond mapping. There are many other steps left ahead of them, including creating initial and final proposals, running a transparent challenge process, handling subgrantee applications, and providing regular reporting and ensuring compliance of all who participate. Ready.net offers tools to help state, territory, and tribal broadband offices throughout the entire process. Learn more.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>

What’s next for your state’s broadband office? This piece frames the series ahead, and the state’s next set of challenges, and shows how Ready.net’s Broadband tools can help your state broadband office. 

Mapping is the first step in your 1,000 journey to deploy BEAD. Here’s a look ahead to next steps.

What’s Next for Your State Broadband Office?

Challenge Process, Grant Applications, Reporting & Compliance, oh my! 

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Beyond Mapping: What’s Next For Your State Broadband Office?

beyond-mapping-whats-next-for-your-state-broadband-office

<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Key_Figure_Running_a_Robust_Transparent_Efficient_Challenge_Process_7a8541c401/Key_Figure_Running_a_Robust_Transparent_Efficient_Challenge_Process_7a8541c401.svg?updated_at=2023-04-11T16:53:53.495Z" alt="Map Figure">
</div><h2>Practical Advice for Running an Efficient, Equitable, Data-driven Broadband Grant Challenge Process.</h2><p>As state broadband offices move to distribute grant money for broadband projects from the $42.45 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the Recovery Act Capital Projects Fund, and other state moneys throughout their states, deciding which locations to prioritize can be extremely challenging.</p><p>Combined, the funding sources offer what’s expected to be the largest investment in broadband infrastructure across the United States and its territories in a generation — possibly longer — so getting the funding allocations right is imperative for states.</p><p>Viewing, evaluating, and approving or disapproving public challenges to a state’s broadband Fabric presents a major logistical issue for state broadband offices. How to keep track of all the many challenges, view, analyze and approve or disapprove of them? How to determine which communities are in areas of highest need and direct the appropriate funding to them? It sounds like a complicated and herculean task, and it is, but there is a simple, elegant, and helpful solution for state broad offices to use starting now: The <a href="https://ready.net/products/challenge-process-coordinator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Challenge Process Coordinator</a> from Ready.net. Read more about the challenge process and how the Challenge Process Coordinator helps streamline it for broadband state offices/officials/teams below:</p><h2>Understand the BEAD Broadband Challenge Process: How to Get It Right</h2><p>According to the <a href="https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/BEAD-Frequently-Asked-Questions-%28FAQs%29_Version-2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)</a>, “Any State of the U.S., the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are considered “eligible entities” under the BEAD program and may apply for funding.</p><p>But the NTIA requires all eligible entities to design and conduct their own “transparent, evidence-based, and expeditious” challenge processes separately, before allocating their BEAD subgrant funds. As the NTIA states, “an eligible entity can incorporate information from its own mapping data and must conduct its own challenge process prior to awarding subgrants for broadband deployment.”</p><p>Essentially, this means that as the state/eligible entity begins to consider which projects or areas should receive broadband funding and how much, they must also allow the potential funding recipients or residents of the state to challenge the proposed allocations. This challenge process includes determining whether a location is unserved or underserved. If successful, the challenges can be submitted to NTIA for review and approval.</p><p>When do states need to run their challenge process? The NTIA says “after the submission of<br>the Initial Proposal but before the distribution of funding for broadband deployment.”</p><p>What information may a state use in their challenge process? Again, the NTIA offers that an eligible entity “may decide to accept a broader range of information that may bear on broadband service in an area than is considered in an FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC) challenge.” In other words, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/consumers#:~:text=If%20the%20information%20about%20the,map%20and%20submitting%20the%20form." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more information than just speed and latency.</a></p><p>What does a state have to share with the NTIA and when? The agency says the state/eligible entity “must notify NTIA of any modifications” to its initial funding proposal/challenge process proposal submitted earlier to qualify for funding awards, such as those “that are necessitated by successful challenges to its initial determinations.” Yet, the NTIA also reserves its own right to reject or confirm challenges.</p><p>As for when the agency needs states to share this data back with the NTIA, the answer is: “After resolving each challenge and at least 60 days before allocating grant funds for network deployment,” and the data they’re asking for is quite robust and comprehensive, including, “the final classification of each unserved location, underserved location, or eligible community anchor institution within the jurisdiction” of the state/entity.</p><p>Confusing? You bet. That’s why Ready.net’s <a href="https://ready.net/products/challenge-process-coordinator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Challenge Process Coordinator</a> is here to help.</p><h2>How the Challenge Process Coordinator From Ready.net Helps States</h2><p>The Challenge Process Coordinator is a secure, fast, online tool with rich and easily navigable data dashboards and 100% compliance with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) regulations.</p><p>The Challenge Process Coordinator was designed from the ground up as a custom tool specifically to help states manage their BEAD and CPF challenge process. It follows the Broadband Mapping Coalition's recommended methodology and integrates seamlessly with a state's Broadband Fabric.</p><p>By using it, your team at the state broadband office will be able to publish your public map, direct selected members of the public to take reliable, comprehensive broadband speed tests, and then access the results, view multiple layers of data including speedtests and socioeconomic/demographic, invite stakeholders to weigh in, and run your challenge process — all from a single system.</p><h2>The Tools Your State Broadband Office Needs, All In One Place</h2><p>With the Challenge Process Coordinator you and your designated team members can quickly see, at a glance, helpful statistics including when your broadband challenge map was most recently updated, how many challenges are currently under review and how many locations they originate from, how many challenges have been processed, how many challenges from different locations have been accepted or rejected.</p><p>Using highly organized and easy-to-read tabs, you can also click through to view a list of all the specific challenges and see each one’s real-time status using a color coded status indicator, and click through to expand for much more rich information on the specific challenge, including who or what organization originated it and where. Other tabs provide the opportunity to view challenges in-review, processed, and withdrawn.</p><p>No more messy spreadsheets, missing email attachments, or leaving out legitimate complaints. Take care of your entire challenge process in one place, from anywhere, using your existing infrastructure and the <a href="https://ready.net/products/challenge-process-coordinator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Challenge Process Coordinator</a> from Ready.net.</p><p>What's more, the Challenge Process Coordinator is customizable to fit your state's unique rules and procedures.</p><p>One of the most valuable features of the Challenge Process Coordinator is its built-in tools for requesting evidence of service. This ensures that you have all the information you need to make informed decisions and accurately reflect broadband coverage in your state.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/ready-net-public-assets/Figure_challenge_request_and_documents_692a2bcc13/Figure_challenge_request_and_documents_692a2bcc13.svg?updated_at=2023-04-05T20:34:04.326Z" alt="Pyramid Figure">
</div><p>If you're feeling overwhelmed by the challenge process, the Challenge Process Coordinator could be the solution you've been looking for. With its user-friendly interface and customizable features, it's a powerful tool that can help you navigate this complex and important process with confidence.</p><p>Clearly, there’s a lot for state broadband offices to consider when launching, running, and evaluating their NTIA-required challenge process — so much that it can feel overwhelming.</p><p>Thankfully, there's a great solution waiting in the wings: The Challenge Process Coordinator from Ready.net. By using this super-fast and secure online tool, states can manage the entire challenge process easily in a single place. It's completely customizable, integrates seamlessly with a state's Broadband Fabric, provides built-in tools for requesting evidence of service and reviewing challenges, and connects directly with verified external stakeholders &nbsp;— all while staying compliant with federal rules and regulations. It can help state broadband offices navigate this complex and important process with confidence.</p><p>Don’t Let Challenges Get You Down. See what the <a href="https://ready.net/products/challenge-process-coordinator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Challenge Process Coordinator</a> can do for your team.</p>

The pitfalls and hazards of the challenge process, what can be learned from the Fabric model, and how to roll out a Ready Challenge Process

Practical advice for state broadband offices running an efficient, equitable, data-driven broadband grant challenge process. 

State Broadband Office Resources

Comprehensive resources to help state broadband offices secure BEAD grants for expanding broadband infrastructure in underserved and unserved areas.

NTIA Announces Updated BEAD Challenge Process Policy

Updates to the BEAD Challenge Process Policy

Congrats NTIA and State Broadband Offices - List of BEAD Grant Allocations

Congrats to all the hardworking folks at NTIA and States, and thank you for doing this.

Get Defensible, Transparent, NTIA-Compliant Speed Tests

The State Broadband Office’s Guide to Speedtests for Challenge Process

Building a Fair and Inclusive Process

Get Ready to Work with Small, Local, and Non-traditional Providers

Scaling You: How Your State Broadband Office Can Use Tech to Do More with Less

A look at the Ready Grantor Platform as a whole – save time, empower team, get results.

Optimizing Your State’s BEAD Allocation

Get The Most from Your Broadband Grant Resources: Achieve Your Vision for BEAD & Beyond

Beyond Mapping: What’s Next For Your State Broadband Office?

Embrace Standards To Make The Most Of Your Resources

Running a Robust, Transparent, Efficient Challenge Process

Practical advice for running an efficient, equitable, data-driven broadband grant challenge process.