Earlier this week, the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) requested additional data from all Federal Funding Account
(FFA) applicants.
All FFA applicants must enter additional information into their
applications on the Broadband Grant Portal. To respond to the
data request, log
into the Broadband Grant Portal to access the data request.
Applicants must submit responses to all the fields, even if the
answer may be located elsewhere in the application. Applicants
must also provide location IDs for all unserved locations in
their proposed project area(s). To submit your location IDs,
follow the steps provided in the data request.
Applicants must submit the requested information no later than 4
p.m. Pacific Standard Time, March 11, 2024. Failure to
respond to this data request by that date will delay the
Communications Division’s review of your application(s).
Incomplete applications cannot move forward.
As per our
previous bulletin article, the FFA, administered by the
CPUC, is a $2 billion grant program for
last-mile broadband infrastructure projects to connect unserved
Californians in accordance with CSAC-supported Senate
Bill 156 (Chapter 112, Statutes of 2021). The
application window closed on September 29, 2023, and the initial
objection period closed on November 20, 2023, followed by a
28-day objection response period. The FFA received 484
grant applications within the grant window. At least
two applications were received for every county in the state,
with a total of more than $4.6 billion in requests to fund
last-mile broadband infrastructure projects to connect unserved
Californians.
