Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Categories
General Information
A: Please refer to the BEAD Challenge Process website for detailed timelines.
- Phase 1 – Registration & Location Publication Phase
- Open: October 21, 2024
- Phase 2 – Challenge Window Phase
- Open: November 4, 2024
- Close: January 3, 2025
- Phase 3 – Rebuttal Phase
- Open: January 4, 2025
- Close: February 2, 2025
- Phase 4 – Final Determination Phase
- Open: February 3, 2025
- Close: March 5, 2025
A: The OBC team reviews and approves registrations. You will receive your login information once your registration has been approved.
A: Yes, local governments are encouraged to apply. Local governments in New Jersey play a crucial role in expanding broadband access. Register to participate in the challenge process and help improve connectivity across the state.
A: New Jersey BEAD Challenge Process Resource Guide . Additionally, the resource guide can be found on the portal under resources.
A: All pre-registered challengers should have received a link for the Challenge Portal. If you have not, please contact us: broadband@bpu.nj.gov .
A: Participants will need to provide general information about their organization (e.g. – Name, Email, Phone Number) as well as documentation to validate your organization’s identity (e.g. – documentation of registration with the New Jersey Secretary of State’s Office).
A: To listen to past recordings regarding the BEAD Challenge Process, please click here: https://www.nj.gov/connect/about-us/public-meetings/
A: There are no penalties for inaccurate claims. If an area is found to be incorrectly served or unserved, it would filp on our map to correctly represent its status.
A: Tech support question can be submitted to: njhelpdesk@ready.net
A: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved New Jersey’s request to extend the Planned Provision of Service (PPS) deadline in the Broadband Challenge Process. The original deadline of June 30, 2024, has been extended to March 31, 2026.
A: States have Tier C licenses. You can learn more by visiting the NTIA’s Licensing FAQ.
A: Deployment will not begin until Subgrantee process are awarded funds. The subgrantee selection phase will take place after the Challenge Process is completed in March 2025.
A: The state may potent an excess of more than $100M remaining for non-deployment use cases (IP V2 2.5.2) .
Challenges/Submissions
A: Yes, each location must conduct three speed tests on three different days; the days do not have to be adjacent (IP v1 1.4.6)
A: Outline for challenges can be found in the Initial Proposal - IP v1 1.4.6
A: The Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) are based on the May 10th, 2024, version of the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection and version 4.0 of the FCC’s BSL Location Fabric.
A: The rebuttal phase will open December 4, 2024 and will remain open for 30 calendar days. The rebuttal phase will close on January 2, 2025 11:59 ET.
A: You must submit right away. There are no draft challenges. The BEAD Challenge Process Resource Guide is a great guide to preparing your challenges beforehand for simple submission.
A: Yes, existing and planned service challenges will have its own category.
A: Subgrantee selection process - by February 1st, final determination, 90 day process.
A: During the challenge submission period – the earlier the better so you have time to alter, edit, and revise your submission(s).
A: The CPF map is not final. We are encouraging those who are participating in CPF to ensure that those locations are also included.
A: Each phase of this challenge process is 30 days. If an internet service provider does not respond, then the submission will be accepted and provided to the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) for approval.
A: The challenge process will run beyond CPF’s application period. The program administration will let you know that your project areas can be subject to change as some of those locations may flip to being served. Even if the location is included in the CPF design, we do encourage you to still submit that as a challenge location.
A: No. The final determination is done by NTIA.
A: On the portal, users can select challenge types such as – availability, speed, latency, and technology.
Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs)
A: CAI data can be found in New Jersey’s Initial Proposal – Attachments.
A: Office of Broadband Connectivity (OBC) will only allow challenges on the following grounds:
- The identification of eligible community anchor institutions, as defined by the State of New Jersey,
- Community anchor institution BEAD eligibility determinations,
- BEAD eligibility determinations for existing broadband serviceable locations (BSLs),
- Enforceable commitments, or
- Planned service.
A: The state allows bulk upload of locations except for CAI challenges. This is due to the specific reporting requirements for this challenge type.
A: If they are a unit of government or non-profit, then coordination with CAI's can help them gather challenge evidence.
A: Yes.
A: That list was put together during a timestamp, but this is an opportunity to identify those CAI’s. In IP V1 we will make sure that we can highlight the code for CAI’s to identify those who are not listed.
Miscellaneous
A: During the BEAD Challenge Process, OBC will only allow challenges from nonprofit organizations, units of local and tribal governments, and broadband service providers.