As used in this part:

1. (1) “25/3 Mbps” means an internet speed of twenty-five megabits per second (25 Mbps) for downloading content and three megabits per second (3 Mbps) for uploading content;
2. (2) “100/20 Mbps” means an internet speed of one hundred megabits per second (100 Mbps) for downloading content and twenty megabits per second (20 Mbps) for uploading content;
3. (3) “Affordable Connectivity Program” means a Federal Communications Commission benefit program that provides a discount of up to thirty dollars ($30.00) per month for internet access for households below a certain income threshold, or seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per month for areas that qualify as high-cost according to the Federal Communications Commission;
4. (4) “Area” means a census block group as that term is used by the United States Bureau of the Census;
5. (5) “Area or MDU challenge” means a single challenge lodged by two (2) or more permissible challengers, rather than those challengers each filing their own challenge;
6. (6) “BEAD” means the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Pub. L. No. 117-58;
7. (7) “Broadband serviceable location” or “BSL” means a business or residential location at which mass-market fixed broadband internet access service is, or can be, installed;
8. (8) “Buy It Now Threshold” means the threshold above which competitive tranche-1 bids will be granted provisional awards;

9. (9) “Community anchor institution” or “CAI” means an entity such as a school, library, health clinic, health center, hospital or other medical provider, public safety entity, institution of higher education, public housing organization, or community support organization that facilitates greater use of broadband service by vulnerable populations, including, but not limited to:

   1. (A) Low-income individuals;
   2. (B) Unemployed individuals;
   3. (C) Children; and
   4. (D) Aged individuals;
10. (10) “Competitive bid” means an applicant’s bid for a project area that overlaps with a bid from a different applicant;
11. (11) “Conduit” means a protective tube or trough through which fiber is run;
12. (12) “Data cap” means an internet service provider-imposed limit on the amount of data that a consumer can use over a certain time period;
13. (13) “Deployment” means the build-out of broadband infrastructure to unserved and underserved locations;
14. (14) “Digital Skills and Opportunity Plan” means Arkansas’s document outlining the state’s vision for digital opportunity in the context of its overarching strategy and goals;
15. (15) “Digital subscriber line” or “DSL” means a networking technology that provides broadband over conventional telephone lines;
16. (16) “Download speed” means the rate that digital data is transferred from the internet to a computer;

17. (17)

    1. (A) “Enforceable commitment” means a National Telecommunications and Information Administration classification for locations that are receiving broadband infrastructure build-outs from federal or state programs excluding BEAD.
    2. (B) Such locations are considered served by these programs and are therefore ineligible for BEAD funding;
18. (18) “Extremely high cost per location threshold” means the point at which fiber deployment is no longer cost effective and alternate technologies are considered;
19. (19) “High-cost area” means an unserved area in which the cost of building out broadband service is higher, as compared with the average cost of building out broadband service in underserved areas;
20. (20) “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” or “IIJA” means the federal law passed in 2021 that established the BEAD program;
21. (21) “Latency” means the time it takes to send data and receive a response;
22. (22) “Low-cost plan” means a reduced cost internet service plan for areas below a certain income threshold;
23. (23) “Mbps” means megabits per second;
24. (24) “Minimum application score threshold” means a threshold below which ARConnect will consider other coverage options for an area that does not receive any bids scoring above the threshold;

25. (25) “Mobile test unit” means a testing apparatus that:

    1. (A) Can be easily moved; and
    2. (B) Simulates the equipment and installation (antenna, antenna mast, subscriber equipment, etc.) that would be used in a typical deployment of fixed wireless access service by the provider;
26. (26) “Multiple dwelling unit” or “MDU” means residential duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, apartment buildings, condominiums, mobile home parks, trailer courts, or similar types of multi-unit arrangements on one (1) parcel of land often served by one (1) internet service provider;
27. (27) “National Broadband Map” means the map provided by the Federal Communications Commission that provides information about the internet services available to individual locations across the country, along with new maps of mobile coverage, as reported by ISPs in the Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing broadband data collection;
28. (28) “National Telecommunications and Information Administration” or “NTIA” means the division of the United States Department of Commerce that is responsible for overseeing the BEAD program;
29. (29) “Nondeployment projects” means projects that boost technological capacity, educational resources, and digital skills and opportunity for the adoption of broadband;
30. (30) “Project area” means the set of one (1) or more areas that will be serviced as part of a bid;
31. (31) “Reference subsidy” means a target BEAD subsidy for each area that ARConnect will establish to guide applicants’ bids;
32. (32) “Right-of-way” means a legal right, established by a grant from a landowner or long usage, to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another;
33. (33) “Served” means receiving an internet speed greater than or equal to 100/20 Mbps;

34. (34) “Severe convective storm” means a local storm associated with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, hail, strong winds, or sudden temperature changes that is capable of producing:

    1. (A) A tornado;
    2. (B) Hail greater than or equal to one inch (1”) in diameter; and/or
    3. (C) Winds greater than fifty-eight miles per hour (58 m.p.h.);
35. (35) “Speed test” means a measurement of speed between a device and a test server using a device’s internet connection;
36. (36) “Standard operating procedure” means a specific process for challenge evaluators to follow when reviewing challenge applications;

37. (37)

    1. (A) “Subgrantee” means an internet service provider (ISP) that has been awarded a portion of Arkansas’s federal BEAD grant to build broadband infrastructure for a given area of the state.
    2. (B) For nondeployment projects, a subgrantee may be a nonprofit organization, unit of local government, business, or other entity awarded a portion of BEAD funding to implement nondeployment initiatives;
38. (38) “Underserved” means receiving an internet speed less than 100/20 Mbps but greater than or equal to 25/3 Mbps;
39. (39) “Unserved” means receiving an internet speed less than 25/3 Mbps; and
40. (40) “Upload speed” means the rate that data is transferred from a computer to the internet.