New York State Broadband Challenge Portal
Introduction
Welcome to New York State's Broadband Challenge Portal. In this portal, you can access resources for the map challenge, see the broadband map, and register to submit challenges. To submit a challenge, as per the NTIA guidance, you must represent a broadband service provider, local government, Tribal government, or non-profit organization.
It is strongly recommended that your organization's primary point of contact for the challenge process be the first person from your organization to register within the portal. Once their registration has been approved, they will be able to log in and invite additional members of your organization to the portal as teammates. If you are not sure whether anyone from your organization has registered yet, you can go ahead and submit your information and you will be notified if an account for your organization already exists.
Review the program overview below to see the different challenge categories and types to ensure you submit the appropriate evidence for each. After the challenge window closes, the rebuttal window will open for entities to provide counter evidence to submitted challenges. After the rebuttal window closes, challenges will be reviewed and resolved by the ConnectALL Office and the updated map will be used as the basis for allocating Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) funding across the state.
This form is AudioEye enabled. To access the AudioEye toolbar, press the Shift key and the Equals key, or select the icon at the bottom right of any page. For any other accessibility issues and/or reasonable accommodation requests related to this form, please email challenge@esd.ny.gov to request assistance.
Program Overview
Challenge Categories and Types
Challenges may be submitted to establish that broadband service is or will be provided to a given set of locations; outline that broadband service is inadequate, unreliable, or not offered to a given set of locations; or to identify Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) eligible for upgraded connectivity through the BEAD Program.
To submit a challenge, challengers will be required to select from the following challenge options:
- Planned or Existing Service
- Planned Service: Broadband Service is going to be deployed to the locations selected by December 31, 2024
- Existing Service: Broadband Service is already provided to the locations selected but not yet reflected in the FCC National Broadband Map
- Enforceable Commitment
- Enforceable Commitment: Broadband Service is going to be provided to the locations selected under an enforceable commitment
- Not Part of an Enforceable Commitment: Broadband Service is not going to be provided to the locations selected under an enforceable commitment
- Provider Service Level (Reported Service)
- Availability: The broadband service identified is not offered at the location, including a unit of a multiple dwelling unit (MDU)
- Latency: The round-trip latency of the broadband service exceeds 100 milliseconds
- Data Cap: The only service plans marketed to consumers impose a capacity allowance (“data cap”) of less than 600 GB/month on the consumer
- Technology: The technology of the broadband service indicated for this location is incorrect
- Business Service Only: The location is residential, but the service offered is marketed or available only to businesses
- Community Anchor Institution (CAI) Challenge
- Location is a CAI: The location should be classified as a CAI
- Location is not a CAI: The location is currently labeled as a CAI but is a residence, a non-CAI business, or is no longer in operation
- CAI: Qualifying Broadband Unavailable: The CAI does not have access to symmetric gigabit service
- CAI: Qualifying Broadband Available: The CAI can obtain symmetric gigabit service
Location Selection
The challenge portal only allows challengers to select a subset of locations from the geospatial interface. This subset is modified based on the challenge category and type selected. For example, for a provider service level challenge, only served or underserved locations from the selected provider and technology type are selectable. For a CAI challenge, only one location can be selected at a time. This is intended to simplify the challenge process and ensure that locations are not incorrectly selected for a given challenge. There is no limit on the number of challenges that may be submitted. Locations may be selected by uploading shapefiles, selecting from an existing library of shapefiles, drawing on the map, 'shift-dragging' across a set of locations, or individually selecting locations.
Evidence Submission
Each challenge type requires different types of evidence; challengers will be asked to respond to different questions during the challenge submission process, depending on their challenge type(s). Evidence may be submitted in the form of file uploads or narrative support or both. Evidence may be added within the challenge portal after the challenge has been submitted, up until the challenge window closes. After a challenge passes initial review by ConnectALL, challenged entities will be notified and may submit rebuttals (with appropriate evidence) when the rebuttal window opens.
Program Documents
Given the large size of these CSV files, please open the downloaded files using a data processing program capable of handling up to 10 million data points.