Utah Broadband Center seeks public input on proposed locations for broadband deployment

The Utah Broadband Center (UBC), part of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, asks for public feedback on Utah’s draft of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Initial Proposal Volume 1. The total funding allocation for Utah is $317.4 million, which will be distributed to various broadband projects through a competitive grant process. To ensure the greatest impact for Utahns, community members and stakeholders are encouraged to provide input to the state’s proposed process to identify areas needing broadband service. This first volume of the BEAD Initial Proposal outlines Utah’s strategies for identifying all locations that will be eligible for BEAD-funded projects. This includes all locations that are unserved by high-speed internet, defined as greater than 25 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload, or underserved, defined as less than 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. It also includes community anchor institutions that don’t have access to at least 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) of service. The document outlines a future challenge process where internet service providers, local and tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations can review the list of locations. Comments can be submitted online through Oct. 14, 2023.