Under current law, the commissioner of economic and community development is authorized to establish and administer the broadband accessibility grant program for the purpose of promoting the deployment and adoption of broadband internet access services. The program is administered pursuant to policies developed by the department.
This bill amends the administration of the program by adding that the department must administer the program pursuant to the new regulations implemented by this bill along with the policies developed by the department that are not in conflict with this bill. This bill clarifies that any policies developed by this department apply to the program and to any other broadband program in which state or federal funds are used to promote the deployment or expansion of broadband services in Tennessee.
MINIMUM DOWNLOAD AND UPLOAD SPEEDS
Present law requires grants under the program to be awarded to promote the deployment and adoption of broadband services with minimum download speeds of 10 Mbps and minimum upload speeds of 1 Mbps to locations without broadband services at these minimum speeds. This bill increases the minimum download speeds and upload speeds to 100 Mbps and 20 Mbps, respectively.
REQUIREMENTS FOR PRIORITY
Present law provides that priority will be given to projects that meet the following requirements:
(1) Serve locations without access to download speeds of at least 10 Mbps and upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps;
(2) Propose to acquire and install infrastructure that supports broadband services scalable to higher download and upload speeds. However, this priority must not take precedence over serving a greater number of locations or larger area;
(3) Serve locations with demonstrated community support, including, but not limited to, documented support from the political subdivision or the political subdivision receiving designation as a broadband ready community;
(4) Have not received funds or have not been designated to receive funds through other state or federally funded grant programs designed specifically to encourage broadband deployment in an area within a location without the minimum speeds; and
(5) Will provide higher download and upload speeds of broadband service to the locations served.
This bill makes the following revisions to the requirements:
(A) It revises (1) above to include the new minimum of 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload speed;
(B) It removes the preference in (2) above of serving a larger area and only maintains the preference of serving a greater number of locations;
(C) It adds to (4) above that a project is not disqualified if the funds are to be used to alleviate costs of installing broadband facilities underground because the project has been denied reasonable access to aerial facilities or aerial facilities in the location lack the capacity to accommodate new broadband attachments at a reasonable cost;
(D) It adds the new requirement that the projects will need to provide broadband service to the greatest number of locations at the highest speeds for the lowest grant amount per location; and
(E) It adds another new requirement that the projects have the ability to commit to providing at least 20 percent of the cost to deploy the broadband. When grants are requested to provide broadband service to the same location, the department must establish a preference for approving grant applications with a greater capital contribution.
This bill prohibits the department from awarding a grant if the location is being served by at least one provider offering minimum download and upload speeds; or a federal or state grant has been located to a broadband services provider to provide broadband services to the location at the minimum download and upload speeds. However, a project is not disqualified pursuant to this limitation if the funds are to be used to alleviate costs of installing broadband facilities underground because the project has been denied reasonable access to aerial facilities or aerial facilities in the location lack the capacity to accommodate new broadband attachments at a reasonable cost.
REQUIREMENTS OF DEPARTMENT
This bill requires the department to do the following:
(1) Maintain a list of eligible locations on its website that do not have broadband services at the minimum download and upload speeds and would qualify for grants; and
(2) Allow broadband services providers a reasonable opportunity to comment on a grant award by providing data denoting the availability of broadband prior to the award of any grant.
APPLICABILITY
This bill applies to grants awarded on or after the effective date of the bill.
ON MARCH 30, 2023, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 1211, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill to add to and revise present law concerning the broadband accessibility grant program.
This amendment expands the authority of the commissioner to administer all broadband grant programs (instead of only the broadband accessibility grand program) in which state or federal funds are designated for the purpose of promoting the deployment and adoption of broadband internet access services.
This amendment authorizes the department, in its administration of the program, to waive provisions of this amendment that conflict with federal law enforcement if the conflicting provision would result in the loss of federal grant funds and the waiver is made known to broadband service providers.
This amendment adds that the department's policies must provide for awarding grants to entities that provide last mile broadband services. In addition to the broadband accessibility grant program, the department's policies must apply to any other broadband program in which state or federal funds are used to promote the deployment or expansion of broadband services in Tennessee.
This amendment retains this bill's increase to at least 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload speed for grant eligibility.
This amendment changes the priority list, as described in the Bill Summary, to require that priority be given to projects that:
(1) Propose to acquire and install infrastructure that supports broadband services scalable to the download and upload speeds higher than the minimum speeds mentioned above that have been updated. However, this priority does not take precedence over serving a greater number of locations that are unserved locations for the lowest grant amount per location if the department also gives due consideration to high-cost or difficult-to-serve areas as part of its review of the number of locations to be served;
(2) Serve locations with demonstrated community support, including, but not limited to, documented support from the political subdivision or the political subdivision receiving designation as a broadband ready community; and
(3) Have the ability to commit to providing at least 20 percent of the cost to deploy the broadband, unless the location to be served is a high-cost area, as determined by a federal grant program.
This amendment prohibits the department from awarding a broadband accessibility grant that:
(1) Proposes to serve a location that is already being served by at least one provider offering download and upload speeds that meet the minimums in this amendment; or
(2) Would serve a location that has received funds, or is designated to receive funds, through a state or federally funded grant program designed specifically to encourage broadband deployment to the location with such minimum download speeds.
This amendment requires the department to maintain and update a state broadband accessibility map on its website that identifies unserved locations.
This amendment maintains this bill's requirement concerning allowing comment by broadband providers, as described in the Bill Summary.
This amendment requires all recipients of broadband accessibility grants, or grants under similar programs under the commissioner's administration, to complete the obligations of the award of funds within the time period outlined within the agreement to award the funds unless there are circumstances that cause a delay in completing an obligation that is not within the recipient's control. If a recipient does not complete an obligation on time, the recipient is liable for repayment of the entire grant in full, plus 20 percent of the grant amount.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 4-3-708(d), 4-3-708, 4-3-708(e), 4-3-708(e)(1), 4-3-708(e)(2), 4-3-708(e)(4)
Amended with HA0199 -- 03/30/2023: 4-3-708(d), 4-3-708, 4-3-708(e), 4-3-708(e)(1), 4-3-708(e)(2), 4-3-708(e)(4)