86-1307.

Grants; applications; commission publish proposed projects, project areas, and broadband Internet service speeds; challenge; procedure; civil penalty.

(1) Within three business days after the application deadline described in subdivision (1)(a) of section 86-1304, the commission shall publish on its website the proposed projects, project areas, and broadband Internet service speeds for each application submitted.

(2) Any provider may, within thirty days after the publication under subsection (1) of this section, submit to the commission on forms provided by the commission a challenge to an application, except that the commission may, upon good cause shown, allow a provider up to ninety days to submit a challenge to an application. Such challenge shall contain information demonstrating that, at the time of submitting the challenge, (a) the provider provides or has begun construction to provide a broadband network in the proposed project area with access to the Internet at speeds equal to or greater than one hundred megabits per second for downloading and twenty megabits per second for uploading or (b) the provider provides broadband service through a broadband network in or proximate to the proposed project area and the provider commits to complete construction of broadband infrastructure and provide a broadband network to the proposed project area with access to the Internet at speeds equal to or greater than one hundred megabits per second for downloading and twenty megabits per second for uploading, no later than eighteen months after the date grant awards are made under the program.

(3) Within three business days after the submission of a challenge as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the commission shall notify the applicant of such challenge. The applicant shall have ten business days after receipt of such notification to provide any supplemental information regarding the challenged application to the commission.

(4) The commission shall require a provider submitting a challenge under subsection (2) of this section to provide speed test results in the challenged portion of the proposed project area in which the provider submitting the challenge states that broadband service is currently available at minimum speeds of one hundred megabits per second for downloading and twenty megabits per second for uploading. Such speed test results shall be provided in a manner prescribed by the commission.

(5) The commission shall evaluate the information submitted in a challenge and shall not award a grant if the information submitted under subsection (2) of this section is credible and if the provider submitting the challenge agrees to submit documentation no later than eighteen months after the date grant awards are made for the then-current fiscal year under the program substantiating that the provider submitting the challenge has fulfilled its commitment to deploy broadband Internet service with access to the Internet at the stated speeds in the proposed project area.

(6) If the commission denies an application for a grant based on a challenge and the provider which submitted the challenge does not provide broadband Internet service to the proposed project area within eighteen months, the commission shall impose a civil penalty for each day such provider fails to provide service after the expiration of such eighteen-month period, and such provider shall not challenge any grant application or make any application for a grant under the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Act for the following two fiscal years unless the failure to provide such service is due to factors beyond the provider's control.