The heat is on at the state broadband offices. New criteria for BEAD money recipients that opens the door to additional types of technology makes it harder to assess which ISPs qualify to be subgrantees, according to Ookla’s Vice President Government Affairs Bryan Darr. And these determinations must be made within an extremely short timeframe of three months.
“If you look at the last three years and all the work that has been done, to do a significant part of that again in three months, is a very, very tight timeframe,” Darr told Drew Clark this week on Broadband Breakfast. “We at Ookla understand and appreciate that there really isn’t time to do a significant or in-depth evaluation, like many of these states have undertaken previously.”
Ookla is offering help, free of charge, to any state broadband office that needs assistance designating subgrantees to provide internet service using the NTIA’s new criteria. Ookla’s crowd-sourced independent reports, which chronicle an ISP’s current and historical performance, can give the states insight into each individual ISP’s download speed, upload speed and latency.
The states could potentially consider the applications of an influx of new entrants, which are relatively unknown concerning their performance. Darr urged the states to take into account the real-world view into actual user experiences when mapping where service consistently meets the FCC’s broadband benchmark.
“Whether evaluating rural deployments or contested service areas, objective performance data helps broadband offices focus their proposals on providers that can truly deliver,” Darr said. “Being able to look at what their historical patterns have been and what service levels they have been able to support, puts you in a much better position to consider their applications.”
After selecting subgrantees and executing their approved Initial Proposal, states must submit a Final Proposal to the NTIA. This Final Proposal will describe how the state complied with their Initial Proposal and the results of their subgrantee selection process. The NTIA must approve the state’s Final Proposal before the state can receive the remaining 80 percent of their allocated BEAD funds and initiate subgrants.
Along with helping states make faster, more informed decisions concerning ISPs, Ookla’s broadband maps will help the states gain approval from the NTIA of their Final Proposal.
For more information, contact Alex Wassiliew, head of public sector at Ookla.
