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Jun 12, 2023·edited Jun 12, 2023Liked by Mike Conlow

Mike, this is tremendous work.

One question: when you say you don't think we'll hear about missing locations once the state allocations happen — what about when states go to make subgrants? My understanding was that they're still bound to allocating funds based on the number/proportion of unserved BSLs in a project area. If that's true, it seems like the CQA fabric (and the completeness of it) stay relevant, but would love to know if there's a different or more definitive answer on that.

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Yeah, fair. I do think the Fabric remains relevant. I was just trying to say that I think the focus of the conversation will move trying to remove extraneous locations instead of (quite as much) attention on adding new locations.

But yeah I think you're right that states will need to make grants to existing locations. Obviously the state challenge processes could change whether a location is served or not. But the underlying Fabric is still the foundation

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Hi Mike,

Thanks for this invaluable work. In your "Allocations and BDC Numbers" work sheet, what is the method (and reasoning) behind calculating the "best available" stats?

Thanks,

John

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Hi John,

"Best available" is the method I use to decide if a location is Served, Underserved, or Unserved. For example, if a location has 1000/1000 fiber, and also a 10/1 DSL, it is Served by the fiber, regardless of its DSL offerings. So it is "best available" = 1000/1000 fiber. Whereas a location with just 10/1 DSL and no other offerings is "best available" = 10/1 = Unserved.

Hope that helps,

Mike

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Thanks for explaining, Mike! We are also processing/aggregating data from the National Broadband Map and using your numbers to validate our pipeline.

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