County ARPA Funds Allocated for Broadband

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The SC Broadband Office (SCBBO) is working to finalize deployment of the State’s remaining ARPA broadband resources. The SC General Assembly allocated $400 million to the SCBBO in Act 244 (May 2022) and there is approximately $35 million uncommitted. An active grant round is open now (ARPA 3.0) with the goal of deploying the remaining funds by June 30, 2024.

The SCBBO is aware of some counties that have remaining County ARPA funds they plan to use on broadband that still need to be committed. Despite the Federal 12/31/2024 deadline, the SCBBO is requesting to work directly with your county to get any county broadband funds contractually obligated to a specific ISP by May 15, 2024. Your contract will need to include an exact list of unserved/underserved Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) and it is unlikely county staff members can do this on their own. You will need to work directly with the SCBBO to ensure funding is committed only once to a BSL to avoid federal compliance issues. The SCBBO Team is prepared to help you get it done as quickly as possible.

There are a couple of relatively simple items the SCBBO is requesting of counties that have ARPA funds for broadband. Below are three prerequisite sign-up steps:

  1. Multiple GIS/IT/technical team members from your county need to register for the BEAD Challenge process. This challenge period opened April 15, 2024, and will close May 15, 2024. Your staff can register for the SC BEAD Challenge online. It should take less than five minutes to complete.
  2. Your county needs to be registered with the Federal Communications Commission and have an FCC Registration Number (FRN). If your county doesn’t already have one, here are some instructions and you will need to complete steps 1-4. If you are unsure whether your county has an FRN, you can do an FRN Lookup. As a footnote, your county will likely have an FRN if you own any communication towers or other vertical assets.
  3. After #2 is complete and you know your FRN, please complete an NTIA Tier E License Request with CostQuest. This license is FREE and it will allow the SCBBO to share confidential broadband information and collaborate with your GIS/technical team to identify and deploy funding to all remaining unserved/underserved resident, businesses, and community anchor institutions in the county.

Once these steps are completed, the SCBBO Team will setup a Teams call with county staff to work on the remainder of the process. If you have any questions, please contact the SCBBO at (803) 737-0800.