NTIA extends broadband challenge window to 45 days, but Alaska's list isn't out yet

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Friday, Nov. 6, extended the challenge window for the second round of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program from 30 to 45 days. The agency cited the holiday schedule and wider participation. The window opens when each state publishes its revised list of eligible locations. As of Friday, the Alaska Broadband Office had posted neither a list nor a deadline.

The new round covers locations identified or changed since the state's earlier plan. NTIA said Sept. 3 that more than 5,000 additional Alaska locations could become eligible.

Alaska Broadband Office director Thomas Lochner told the Statewide Broadband Advisory Board on Sept. 14 where he expects them to be. He named Chevak, where he said 82 locations were missed between two versions of the FCC map. He named 10 Norton Sound villages after he said the USDA 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.

Challenges can only remove locations. A household left off the list cannot use this process to get on it. The challenger must prove that service already exists or will arrive within 12 months of the Sept. 3 notice. Unlike Alaska's 2024 process, there is no rebuttal round. Providers, local governments and nonprofits may file challenges.

Under NTIA's process, states get up to 30 days to review and seven to publish, then 45 days for challenges and 30 to decide them. NTIA's own review comes next and has no set deadline.

Funding for the new locations will equal the state's average cost per location times the number on the final list. Lochner put Alaska's average at about $13,900, "what we've heard." NTIA has not published Alaska's figure, and it sets no amount until the final list is approved.

Alaska's first funding round covered 29 projects and left about $388 million of its $1.017 billion unassigned, according to a March state release. Lochner said the state also asked to use the money for middle-mile resiliency and broadband to data centers, and that NTIA heard the request "at least on the first one." NTIA says other uses await later guidance.