Notes from BEAD Challenge weekly office hours Aug 29: Rebuttal process

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The Office of Broadband Development presented PowerPoint slides, shared information and took questions. I’ll paste the PPT, notes and questions below:

If you have a rebuttal, please submit ASAP, in case of technical difficulties. Deadline is approximately Sept 20.

Questions:

Q: Where can I find challenges that applicants need to be watching on the portal?
Sign in (As an ISP) – challenge dashboard is a dropdown on the right-hand top corner under the profile Icon.

Q: Is there a chance that a challenge could be shown as served but without a specific provider?
If a challenger says they provide service to a given location. But unlikely to have shown up. Sort of gets to planned builds more than existing. (I think.)

Q: What’s the update on rebuttal on challenges and rebuttals? Looking for numbers
36,210 challenges – includes bulk challenges
1 county did a challenge of 2100 locations (shared by fixed wireless provider)

Very few residents who completed 3 speed tests for a challenge – not as many as we thought
This is a federal process – so documentation that you serve as area has to be more than saying “yes” – so your proof should be enough to stand up to a rebuttal

Q: Is third party still trying to aggregate residential challenges?
No, we are working with them on it. But providers will still get full 30 days for rebuttal – based on when info is available.
If ISP submitted large files – seems like they might still be working on that.

Q: Please predict when validation process will be submitted to NTIA? And how long will it take NTIA?
Last week a CostQuest webinar indicated that it might take NTIA 2+ months to approve the list.
Also NTIA indicated in a meeting last week, that there was a deadline, but that date might be flexible if you can provide better data with extra time. They want the cleanest info they can get.

Q: What is NTIA doing to validate?
They are trying to replicate everything OBD is doing.

Chat:

Sign up for the OBD emails: mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/contact/

The OBD webpage has the latest info + resources on BEAD: mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/bead/

Contact OBD: deed.broadband@state.mn.us  or (651) 259-7610

Registration links for upcoming sessions: 

 

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