Revised Infrastructure Grant Account Rules In this decision, we amend rules, application requirements and guidelines for the Infrastructure Grant Account, as summarized below. Determination of Eligible Areas and Served Status As previously noted, AB 1665 revised the definition of when a home is considered “served” as relates to broadband services from the previous standard of 6 mbps download and 1.5 mbps upload to 6 mbps download and 1 mbps upload (except in Consortia regions that are already 98 percent served at speeds of 6/1). AB 1665 also established other eligibility requirements for CASF program funding which were designed to limit overbuilding. Under previous practice, ineligible census blocks were largely determined by a service provider’s claim(s) of serving households within such census blocks and information indicating subscriptions within these census blocks. However, not all households within such census blocks have Internet service available to them. Additionally, parties to this proceeding, other applicants and grantees, as well as the Legislature, have all expressed that the CASF application review process takes too long. In an effort to expedite the review of infrastructure grant applications, AT&T, in its opening comments proposed that the Commission create a single definitive list of CASFeligible census blocks, relying on deployment data submitted as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Form 477 data collection (the Commission’s broadband data collection requires similar data), and that challenges and Right of First Refusal (ROFR) submissions be concurrent.
Revised Infrastructure Grant Account Rules In this decision, we amend rules, application requirements and guidelines for the Infrastructure Grant Account, as summarized below. Determination of Eligible Areas and Served Status As previously noted, AB 1665 revised the definition of when a home is considered “served” as relates to broadband services from the previous standard of 6 mbps download and 1.5 mbps upload to 6 mbps download and 1 mbps upload (except in Consortia regions that are already 98 percent served at speeds of 6/1). AB 1665 also established other eligibility requirements for CASF program funding which were designed to limit overbuilding. Under previous practice, ineligible census blocks were largely determined by a service provider’s claim(s) of serving households within such census blocks and information indicating subscriptions within these census blocks. However, not all households within such census blocks have Internet service available to them. Additionally, parties to this proceeding, other applicants and grantees, as well as the Legislature, have all expressed that the CASF application review process takes too long. In an effort to expedite the review of infrastructure grant applications, AT&T, in its opening comments proposed that the Commission create a single definitive list of CASFeligible census blocks, relying on deployment data submitted as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Form 477 data collection (the Commission’s broadband data collection requires similar data), and that challenges and Right of First Refusal (ROFR) submissions be concurrent.
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