Welcome to California’s BEAD Permissible Challengers Page
Welcome to the page for local governments, Tribal governments, nonprofits, and broadband service providers, which are the “permissible challengers” allowed by BEAD Program rules.
Select one of the options below to register as a permissible challenger or read the Challenge Portal user guide. Further down on the page, you can download data files of unserved, underserved, served, and CAI locations.
Please note: These CSV files may have record counts exceeding the viewable limits in Microsoft Excel and/or other applications.
Unserved
These BSLs reportedly have at least one of the following:
- No access to broadband service
- Speeds of less than 25/3 Mbps
- Latency greater than 100 milliseconds
These locations also are reported to lack enforceable commitments for deployment of service that will deliver speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps.
Underserved
These locations are BSLs that are shown to have at least one of the following:
- Speeds of less than 100/20 Mbps but greater than 25/3 Mbps
- Latency greater than 100 milliseconds
These locations are considered underserved based on the CPUC’s BEAD pre-challenge modifications (i.e., DSL modification and cellular fixed wireless modification), and are reported to lack enforceable commitments for deployment of service that will deliver speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps.
Served
These BSLs reportedly have access to Reliable Broadband Service greater than or equal to 100/20 Mbps and latency less than or equal to 100 milliseconds or have an enforceable commitment for the deployment of service that meets those standards.
Indicated
These locations will likely be funded by an enforceable commitment and will likely not be served by BEAD, but final determination of specific enforceable commitment locations is pending.
CAI
This file includes the list of Eligible Community Anchor Institution (CAI) locations.
Eligible Community Anchor Institution: Speed of not less than 1 Gbps for both downloads and uploads and latency less than or equal to 100 milliseconds.
Project Area Unit (PAU)
This shapefile contains geometry of the PAU polygons as well as relevant PAU attributes.
PAU_ID: Unique PAU ID
Underserved: Count of intersecting underserved eligible locations
Unserved: Count of intersecting unserved eligible locations
TribalPAU: 1 if Tribal Area
HighNeed: 1 if LIA/DAC High Need
NPV_FTTH_Green: Estimated fiber build cost
NPV_FW_Green: Estimated fixed wireless build cost
ScorablePAU: 1 if the PAU contains an unserved or underserved eligible location.
Note: The Net Present Value (NPV) cost estimate is based on NTIA data and will have no impact on project scoring or whether a proposal will be selected for funding. Certain PAUs only contain a single eligible location. The cost estimate for PAUs with a single location is averaged based on surrounding BSLs. As such, the displayed estimated costs for single-BSL PAUs do not represent the actual NTIA projected cost and may have a significantly different value from the NTIA projected cost.
Need help?
For technical assistance with the map, please email cahelpdesk@ready.net.
The CPUC has a dedicated email for questions about the BEAD Subgrantee Selection process. Please send questions to BEADgrant@cpuc.ca.gov.
For general questions about the BEAD Program in California (excluding Subgrantee Selection), please email the CPUC BEAD team at BEAD@cpuc.ca.gov.
For Frequently Asked Questions, please visit our FAQ page.
