90-1-607. (Temporary) Review of proposal challenges -- approval. (1) Five business days following the closing of the submission window, the department shall make the proposals received available for review in a publicly available electronic file, subject to the confidentiality provisions of 90-1-606(3).
(2) A broadband service provider that has timely submitted a proposal may submit to the department, within 30 days of the release of the proposals received, a written challenge to the proposals. The challenge must also include a new proposal that identifies improvements or increases in broadband speed, lower cost, area coverage, or completion date relative to the submitted proposals. Final response to challenges will be provided within 15 days of receipt of challenge for the purpose of expediting awarded projects or modifications accepted through the challenge process. This challenge may include:
(a) information irrefutably disputing a provider's certification that a proposed project area is an unserved or an underserved area supported by the department's verified independent analysis and testing;
(b) that no federal funding has been awarded to support the specific deployment proposed in the response pursuant to 90-1-605(1); and
(c) evidence of broadband service infrastructure meeting or exceeding minimum standards for competitive proposals in the project area under challenge.
(3) Public shapefile data that includes the project area created under the FCC's rules for shapefiles must constitute evidence of broadband service infrastructure sufficient to show that a challenged project area is served completely beyond minimum standards.
(4) In reviewing proposals and any accompanying challenge, the department shall conduct its own review of the proposed project areas to ensure that all awarded funds are used to deploy broadband service infrastructure to unserved or underserved areas. The department may require a provider or challenging provider to submit additional information consistent with this part to enable it to properly assess the proposal or challenge. The department may not award a contract to fund deployment of broadband service infrastructure for a project area that fails to meet any of the criteria provided in this part for being an unserved or underserved area. The department may require a provider to modify a proposal based on broadband access in the proposed area or other relevant factors.
(5) The department shall award funding support for projects set forth in responsive proposals based on a scoring system that must be released to the public at least 30 days prior to the window for submission of proposals. The weighting scheme employed by the department must give the highest weight or priority to the following specific criteria:
(a) the amount of funds a local government and/or school district is contributing to the project relative to the amount of federal funds received by that local government and/or school district from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021;
(b) whether the proposed project area is a frontier, unserved, or underserved area, with frontier and unserved areas receiving greater weight;
(c) the size and scope of the frontier, unserved, or underserved area proposed to be served;
(d) the experience, technical ability, and financial soundness of the eligible provider in successfully deploying and providing broadband service;
(e) the length of time the provider has been providing broadband service in the state;
(f) the extent to which government funding support is necessary to deploy broadband service infrastructure in the proposed project area;
(g) the size and proportion of the matching funds proposed to be committed by the provider;
(h) the service speed thresholds proposed in the proposal and the scalability of the broadband service infrastructure proposed to be deployed with higher speed thresholds receiving greater weight;
(i) the provider's ability to leverage its own nearby or adjacent broadband service infrastructure to facilitate the cost-effective deployment of broadband service infrastructure in the proposed project area;
(j) the extent to which the project does not duplicate any existing broadband service infrastructure in the proposed project area;
(k) the estimated time in which the provider proposes to complete the proposed project;
(l) the number of Montana jobs the provider proposes to create or maintain relative to the population of the region where service is proposed;
(m) any other factors the department determines to be reasonable and appropriate, consistent with the purpose of facilitating the economic deployment of broadband service infrastructure to unserved or underserved areas; and
(n) broadband service providers who have broadband service infrastructure already deployed in the project area.
(6) Frontier areas will be considered for services to the extent terrestrial service is economically viable.
(7) The department shall set a reasonable timeframe to complete projects selected for funding approval. The department may, in consultation with the provider, set reasonable milestones regarding this completion. The department shall create procedures including penalties associated with any failure to comply with the provisions of the awarded contract without reasonable cause. (Terminates on occurrence of contingency--sec. 13, Ch. 449, L. 2021.)
History: En. Sec. 7, Ch. 449, L. 2021; amd. Sec. 40(2), Ch. 401, L. 2021.