The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program aims to help everyone in America get affordable, reliable high-speed internet by funding infrastructure deployment and adoption programs. A requirement of the BEAD program is for Pennsylvania to conduct a map challenge. This map challenge will determine which Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) and Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) will be eligible to be served by BEAD funded networks. Any changes made to Pennsylvania’s Broadband Map will be based on evidence submitted during the challenge process by qualified participants.
Pennsylvania will be administering its BEAD Challenge starting in spring 2024. The final map will determine how we will use the $1.16 billion in BEAD program funding to close the digital divide in the Commonwealth. A Challenge Process Fact Sheet is also available as a printable reference.
The following list of challenges that were submitted during the BEAD Challenge Process is now available for reference. In addition to the challenges, it also includes a date to indicate whether a rebuttal was submitted or not. This spreadsheet contains the location ID of each individual broadband serviceable location (BSL) subject to a challenge.
The document may be subject to change based on the final determinations made during the adjudication phase.
The final phase of the BEAD Challenge Process is the adjudication phase. This phase will evaluate the submitted challenge evidence and a final determination will be made. If the initial challenge was against a specific entity, then the challenge evidence and any rebuttal evidence will be reviewed and a final determination will be made.
A summary of final determinations will be posted in advance of the subgrantee selection process.
The BEAD Challenge Resource Guide includes a detailed overview on how to submit challenges in the BEAD Challenge Process. The following public data documents identify served, unserved, underserved and funded locations of the Commonwealth, as well as Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs). The Served, Unserved, and Underserved data is from Version 3.2 of National Broadband Map, Data as of June 30, 2023 – updated March 5, 2024. The funded BSL data is dated February 20, 2024. A data dictionary is also provided to explain the files in the enforceable funding commitment file. This data will require users to have GIS software and a broadband serviceable location fabric license to match to the National Broadband Fabric. Please see the CostQuest License section above regarding fabric licensing.
NOTE: Some files may have a lag in downloading speed given their document size.
