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Program Requirements

Project Area

Letter of Intent

  • How has the Letter of Intent process changed since NLC Round 3?

    Service providers will be sent a document that will serve as their Letter of Intent to participate in NLC Round 4, which they will be responsible for returning to OCRA. They may also submit address list that will be used added to the eligible address pool for NLC Round 4, along with the address data provided by the local county commissioners across the state.

Challenge

Application

Competitive Application

Definitions

  • What is a passing?

    Passing is an address that service is/would be available at the location. OCRA has identified four types of passings: household, business, anchor institution and farm/agribusinesses. Business is defined as all business types, home-based businesses, and work-at-home/telecommuter use of broadband. Anchor institution is defined as community facilities including public safety buildings like fire and police buildings; hospitals, educational buildings, community centers, libraries; and city, county, state and town buildings.

  • What is a terrestrial connection?

    Terrestrial connection is defined as a fixed connection, and not service provided by mobile or satellite carriers. Applications may propose to complete the project with any technology capable of supporting the service levels described in Section I.C.i. of the Round 4 Application.

  • What is a “unique project area” as stated in Section E. Limitation on Submissions?

    Unique project area means the proposed project area is a different set of census blocks for each submission. An applicant cannot submit the same project area multiple times.

  • What does it mean that service could be “deployed in ten days”?

    Determination of ten-day service deployment will be based on the definition recently passed in Indiana Legislation. Service is defined as being available if the provider does, or could, within ten days, without an extraordinary commitment of resources or construction charges or fees exceeding an ordinary service activation fee, provide 100/20 broadband Internet at the location.

  • What is the definition of “statistically significant survey data”?

    OCRA follows procedures that surveys must be statistically significant at the 95% confidence level and confidence interval of five. Applicant may utilize the Sample Size Calculator that OCRA recommends when entities are unsure of what their sample size should be for a proposed project area. In order to overturn a validly challenged service address, there must be associated survey data from that address.

  • Can you clarify the definition of last mile and middle-mile?

    The last mile refers to network infrastructure that carries signals from the network to and from the home or business. Depending on network design and density of the area served, the actual distance of the last mile can be relatively short or may be considerably longer than a mile. Middle mile refers to the portion of the telecommunications network that connects a network operator’s core network to the local network (last mile) plant. Middle-mile facilities provide fast, large capacity connections and can range from a few miles to a few hundred miles.

Additional FAQ

  • How will OCRA determine the results of conflicting speed tests?

    OCRA will determine the final decision on differing speed test results on a case-by-case basis. OCRA reserves the right to ask for additional information including requiring conversations with the providers and residents, a professional engineer’s certificate for the number of addresses in different passing types, or the committed upload and download speed claimed to be served for each project.

  • Will funded projects be required to pay prevailing wages?

    No, projects will not be required to pay prevailing wages. However, funded projects will be required to report on whether prevailing wages were paid in order to meet the ARPA requirements. Reporting requirements will be shared with funded projects.

  • Will OCRA publish competitive challenges?

    Yes, applications received as part of the new competitive applications, including scope of work and budgets, will be published.

  • Will any form of technology be prioritized?

    OCRA will not discriminate between different types of technology used to provide qualified broadband service in connection with proposed qualified broadband projects.

  • How does OCRA define minimum broadband internet for eligibility of addresses?

    As defined by Indiana Code, minimum broadband internet means a terrestrial connection to the Internet that provides reliable actual speeds of at least one hundred (100) megabits per second downstream and at least twenty (20) megabits per second upstream, regardless of the technology or medium used to provide the connection. Any Indiana address not receiving reliable broadband internet meeting these criteria will be eligible for inclusion in the program.

  • What is the definition of eligible broadband internet for households and businesses?

    As defined by Indiana Code, broadband Internet means connection to the Internet that provides reliable actual speeds of at least fifty (50) megabits per second downstream and at least five (5) megabits per second upstream, regardless of the technology or medium used to provide the connection for households and businesses.