§ 86-1306 — Grant applications; weighted scoring system

(1) The commission shall establish a weighted scoring system to evaluate and rank the applications received each fiscal year.
(2) In each fiscal year, at least thirty days prior to the first day that applications may be submitted, the commission shall publish on the commission's website the specific criteria and the quantitative weighted scoring system the commission will use to evaluate and rank applications and award grants pursuant to the program. Such weighted scoring system shall consider, at a minimum:
(a) The financial, technical, and legal capability of the applicant to deploy and operate broadband Internet service;
(b) Whether the provider is designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier or will be so designated prior to the project completion date;
(c) The ability of an applicant to offer rates in the project area for the applicant's currently offered speed tiers that are comparable to the rates offered by the applicant outside the project area for the same currently offered speed tiers;
(d) The available minimum broadband speeds, with higher scores for faster speeds, except that no grant shall be awarded based on speeds less than those scalable to one hundred megabits per second for downloading and one hundred megabits per second for uploading, or greater;
(e) The ability of the broadband infrastructure to be scalable to higher broadband Internet speeds in the future; and
(f) Whether the applicant has committed to fund more than fifty percent of the total development costs of the project if located outside a high-cost area, or more than twenty-five percent of the total development costs of the project if located inside a high-cost area, as such areas are determined by the commission, from sources other than grants under the program, with higher scores for higher amounts of matching funds.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 2021, LB388, § 6; Laws 2022, LB1144, § 7.