OSIT Releases Five-Year Action Plan
The High Speed Nevada Five-Year Action Plan establishes Nevada’s vision for broadband deployment and digital equity, the goals and objectives, and the priorities, strategies, and activities the State will take to realize our vision. Please read the plan here.
BEAD Request for Information No. 2003-001
Please find a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT). The intent of this RFI is to obtain public input regarding the development of its Five-Year Broadband Action Plan, the solicitation process and structure of future OSIT funding opportunities (RFPs), and the structure of broadband infrastructure programs after funding has been awarded. Specifically, OSIT seeks input on its administration of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program within the Infrastructure & Investment Jobs Act (IIJA - also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).
- Failure to respond to this RFI in whole or in part will not disqualify any vendor from participation in any subsequent solicitation regarding this matter.
- Respondents are not required to respond to every question in order to submit a valid response. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.
- Get BEAD RFI
High Speed NV Phase I Update - 01/18/2023
OSIT would like to thank the service providers who responded to the High Speed NV Phase 1 RFP. The volume of responses was impressive. Every region of the State received at least one response. OSIT has established a four-step process to evaluate proposals in each region. Step one is an administrative review of the proposals. In this step, proposals are reviewed for completeness and that the requirements of the RFP have been met. Step two is a technical review of the proposals. In this step, a thorough evaluation of the technical details of the application, including financial, engineering, and risk, will be conducted. Step three is a merit/programmatic review of the proposals. In this step, evaluators will conduct a thorough, consistent and objective examination of proposals based on the criteria established in the RFP. Step four is a final evaluation, reviewing the results of the three previous steps, by OSIT.
Upon completion of the evaluation process for each region, OSIT will issue a Notice of Intent to Award to one bidder in each region and will begin negotiations with that bidder. If negotiations are successful, OSIT will issue a Notice of Award. If negotiations are not successful, OSIT, at its sole discretion, may choose to move to the next highest scoring bidder in the region or not make an award in that region. OSIT intends to move as thoroughly but expeditiously as possible through this process.
OSIT expects to begin issuing Notices of Intent to Award in each region beginning in late February. Below is a summary of the number of bids per region.
Challenges to the FCC Broadband Map - 01/18/2023
The OSIT team has conducted an analysis of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Broadband Availability Maps that were published on November 18, 2002. OSIT believes this first version of the FCC map understates the number of broadband serviceable locations in Nevada and overstates the number of residential locations in Nevada that have 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload (25/3) service by a significant amount. To that end, OSIT has worked to see that an additional 25,000 locations that were omitted from the first version of the FCC map were added for version 2. Additionally, OSIT has filed availability challenges to the FCC for over 20,000 locations that are depicted on the FCC maps as served by 25/3 or better broadband service.
The $42.5 billion last mile Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will allocate funds based on the number of unserved locations shown on the June 30, 2023 version of the FCC Broadband Availability Map. The administrator of the BEAD fund, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is relying solely on the FCC maps to make the allocation of approximately 80% of the BEAD funds. OSIT will continue to work with stakeholders across the state to ensure Nevada receives a BEAD allocation consistent with its need for affordable, reliable, and scalable broadband service.