Alaska Broadband Office The Alaska Broadband Office (ABO) was created on August 9, 2022, when Governor Dunleavy signed Alaska House Bill 363 into law. The State of Alaska had been engaged in broadband work for several years, most recently highlighted through efforts of the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband in their Final Report issued in November of 2021. Formal broadband efforts were then transferred to the Commissioner’s Office in the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. The Alaska Broadband Office oversees the State of Alaska's efforts to ensure all Alaskans have high quality, affordable internet. This will be done through two federal programs: the Digital Equity Act (DE) and the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. These programs, established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed by Congress in November 2021, allocate funds to expand broadband access for underserved and unserved communities in Alaska. Alaska Broadband Grant Program, Pre-Determined Project Areas (Preliminary) The Alaska Broadband Office (ABO) has grouped the Unserved and Underserved Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSL) into “Pre-Determined Project Areas” (PDPA) to help identify eligible locations by geography. Future applicants to the Alaska Broadband Grant Program are encouraged (but not required) to use the PDPA's when evaluating economies of scale with their project submission. Please feel free to comment on the ABO’s PDPA evaluation via email, phone call, or by attending one of our three weekly listening sessions. For more information about the Alaska Broadband Grant Program, visit the Program Overview and Timelines page. Alaska Broadband Grant Program -- Pre-Determined Project Areas Clicking this link will begin excel download. The In-State Mapping Challenge Preliminary Results Below are the preliminary results of the In-state Mapping Challenge in two formats. The first is a dashboard that allows the user to look at the disposition of all 30,623 Challenges. The second is a graphical map of the results. In State Mapping Challenge -- Preliminary ResultsClicking this link will take you to an external website. In State Mapping Challenge Map -- Preliminary ResultsClicking this link will take you to an external website. Public Engagement The Alaska Broadband Office remains committed to keeping stakeholders informed by participating in speaking engagements and conferences as well as facilitating monthly industry and local government roundtables throughout the planning and implementation process. Attend a Listening session Here