Sec. 9. (a) The office shall establish procedures for the awarding of grants from the fund after July 31, 2019, by state agencies to eligible broadband service providers for eligible broadband projects.

(b) The procedures established under this section must establish the following priorities for the awarding of grants under this chapter:

(1) First, extending the deployment of eligible broadband service to areas in which:

(A) Internet connections are unavailable; or

(B) the only available connections to the Internet are at actual speeds of less than ten (10) megabits per second downstream.

(2) Second, extending the deployment of eligible broadband service to areas in which the only available connections to the Internet are at actual speeds of:

(A) not less than ten (10) megabits; and

(B) not more than twenty-five (25) megabits;

per second downstream.

(3) Projects for areas described in subdivision (2) shall not be funded before projects described in subdivision (1).

(c) The procedures established under this section may not permit the awarding of a grant from the fund for any proposed broadband project in an area in which eligible broadband service is available.

(d) The procedures established under this section may not permit the office to award a grant from the fund for any project in a rural area for which funding has been allocated from the federal Connect America Fund or from any other similar federal funding program the express purpose of which is to provide broadband service to rural or unserved areas.

(e) The procedures established under this section must establish a system of priorities for awarding grants under this chapter, weighted as determined by the office in guidelines adopted under section 10 of this chapter, that gives preference to eligible broadband projects that meet the following criteria:

(1) Projects that will provide eligible broadband service to unincorporated areas in Indiana.

(2) Projects for which the applicant commits to providing more than fifty percent (50%) of the cost to deploy the proposed broadband infrastructure. When multiple applicants apply for a grant to provide eligible broadband service to the same rural area, the office may establish a preference for approving applications with a greater funding contribution by the applicant.

(3) Projects that involve an agreement between the applicant and one (1) or more other parties that would permit the applicant to use existing facilities or infrastructure owned or controlled by an unrelated third party to enable the applicant to offer eligible broadband service to locations in a rural area.

(f) The procedures established under this section must prohibit a state agency, in awarding any grant from the fund, from discriminating between different types of technology used to provide eligible broadband service in connection with proposed eligible broadband projects.

(g) The procedures established under this section must, subject to section 14 of this chapter, require the office to publish on the office's Internet web site all grant applications received by the office under this chapter. For each grant application received, the office shall establish a period of at least thirty (30) days from the date the application is published on the office's Internet web site under this subsection, during which time the office will accept comments or objections concerning the application. The office shall consider all comments or objections received under this subsection in making a determination as to whether to award a grant to an applicant under this chapter.

As added by P.L.189-2019, SEC.7.