Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.7 – Applications shall be scored based upon a system that awards a single point for criteria considered to be the minimum level for the provision of broadband service with additional poi
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.7
- Broadband service: means deployed internet access service with a minimum of one hundred megabits per second (Mbps) download and at least twenty megabits per second upload transmission speeds. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Economically distressed parish: means an unserved area that is in need of expansion of business and industry and the creation of jobs, giving consideration to unemployment, per capita income, and the number of residents receiving public assistance within that unserved area. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Eligible grant recipient: means a provider of broadband service, including a provider operated by a local government if the local government is compliant with the Local Government Fair Competition Act prior to July 1, 2021, with respect to providing such services, a cooperative, or any partnership thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Infrastructure: means existing facilities, equipment, materials, and structures that an internet service provider has installed either for its core business or public enterprise purposes. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Local government: means a parish, municipality, or school board, or any instrumentality thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Office: means the office of broadband development and connectivity within the division of administration. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
- Unserved: means , notwithstanding any other provision of law, any federal funding awarded to or allocated by the state for broadband deployment shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to deploy broadband infrastructure to provide broadband internet service in any area of the state where broadband internet service of at least one hundred megabits per second download and twenty megabits per second upload is available from at least one internet service provider. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2370.2
Applications shall be scored based upon a system that awards a single point for criteria considered to be the minimum level for the provision of broadband service with additional points awarded to criteria that exceed minimum levels. The office shall develop a scoring system in accordance with the following:
(1) The office shall give additional points based upon the experience, technical ability, and financial wherewithal of the applicant in successfully deploying and providing broadband service, as well as the proposed amount of matching funds committed by the applicant relative to the minimum required amount of twenty percent.
(2) The office shall give additional points to applicants that provide a letter of support from local government.
(3) The office shall give additional points to projects based upon the estimated number of unserved households within the eligible economically distressed parish, as determined by the most recent data published by the Federal Communications Commission or any other information available to the office.
(4) The office shall give additional points to projects that will provide broadband service based upon the percentage of the total unserved households within the eligible economically distressed parish that the project will serve. The number of unserved households shall be determined using the most recent data published by the Federal Communications Commission or any other information available to the office.
(5) The office shall give additional points to projects that will provide broadband service to unserved businesses located within the eligible economically distressed parish, as determined by the most recent data published by the Federal Communications Commission or any other information available to the office.
(6) The office shall give additional points based upon the applicant’s ability to leverage its own or nearby or adjacent broadband service infrastructure in the proposed project area, and shall consider the ultimate price to the consumer in awarding points.
(7) The office shall give additional points to projects receiving funding or in-kind contributions from local government for eligible projects within the jurisdiction of the local government.
(8) The office shall give additional points to projects in which the eligible grant recipient is a small business entrepreneurship certified by the Hudson Initiative, La. Rev. Stat. 39:2001 et seq., or the Veteran Initiative, La. Rev. Stat. 39:2171 et seq., in accordance with rules promulgated by the office.
(9) The office shall give additional points to projects in which the eligible grant recipient commits to a good faith subcontracting plan to contract with or employ a small business entrepreneurship certified by the Hudson Initiative, La. Rev. Stat. 39:2001 et seq., or the Veteran Initiative, La. Rev. Stat. 39:2171 et seq., to substantially participate in the performance of the project, in accordance with rules promulgated by the office.
(10) The office shall not consider the format of mapping data provided by a broadband provider evaluating a grant proposal.
Acts 2021, No. 477, §1, eff. July 1, 2021; Acts 2023, No. 383, §3A.