Last week, Louisiana became the first state to have their BEAD plan fully approved by the NTIA. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson heaped praise on the ConnectLA team for “developing a sophisticated and high-quality plan focused on creating jobs and building resilient networks that will serve the state for years to come.” As other states work on finalizing their plans, here's my Top 10 list of elements that are novel or different compared to what has been proposed in other state draft plans that I've looked at so far.
In #5, your narrative notes, "... Louisiana may simply remove the conflicting BSLs from one of the two applications, and both applicants are still required to accept the award."
That brought me up short. In most (if not all) broadband grant funding programs, applicants can simply decline an award. The details of that can vary from agency to agency but, as written, it sounds like LA will require applicants to accept an award if their application is approved.
In #5, your narrative notes, "... Louisiana may simply remove the conflicting BSLs from one of the two applications, and both applicants are still required to accept the award."
That brought me up short. In most (if not all) broadband grant funding programs, applicants can simply decline an award. The details of that can vary from agency to agency but, as written, it sounds like LA will require applicants to accept an award if their application is approved.
Am I reading that correctly?