More Alaska homes could qualify for federal internet money as challenge window grows

Internet providers and others will get more time to challenge which Alaska homes and businesses qualify for a new round of federal broadband money, after the federal government extended the challenge window Friday from 30 to 45 days.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said in September that more than 5,000 additional Alaska locations could become eligible in this second round of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, which pays to bring high-speed internet to places with little or none.

Thomas Lochner, director of the Alaska Broadband Office, told a state advisory board in September where he expects some of them to be. He named Chevak, where he said 82 locations were missed between two versions of the FCC's coverage map, and 10 Norton Sound villages where he said the U.S. Department of Agriculture had recalled three awards. He also named the Thorne Bay area, where he said locations were miscategorized and corrected too late.

No published list confirms any of them yet. The challenge window opens when the state posts its list, and as of Friday it hadn't.

Challenges only work one way. Providers, local governments and nonprofits can try to get locations removed by showing service already exists or will arrive within 12 months of NTIA's Sept. 3 notice. A household left off the list can't use the process to get on. And unlike Alaska's 2024 challenge process, there's no round for rebuttals.

After the challenges, the state gets 30 days to decide them. Then NTIA reviews the list, with no set deadline.

How much money goes to the new locations depends on the final count. It will equal the number of locations times the state's average cost per location. Lochner put that average at about $13,900, calling it "what we've heard." NTIA hasn't published Alaska's figure.

Alaska's first round funded 29 projects and left about $388 million of the state's $1.017 billion unassigned, according to a state release in March. Lochner said the state has asked to use some of the leftover money for middle-mile resiliency and for broadband to data centers. NTIA says other uses will wait for later guidance.