The Broadband Development Office (BDO) will accept written challenges from any interested party regarding a Texas BEAD application. A challenge can be submitted if there are concerns about whether a location is eligible for an award. Challenges must be based on the criteria prescribed by the BDO and as outlined in the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).

Any interested party, other than a broadband service provider that does not report information requested by the office under Texas Code Section 490I.0105 or 490I.01061, may submit a challenge. This includes individuals, organizations and entities that meet the criteria defined below.

An “interested party” means a person, including an individual, corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association or any other legal entity that resides or has a place of business in the designated area subject to protest and also includes a broadband service provider not located in the designated area but proposes to provide broadband service in the designated area.

Application challenges received from anyone not meeting the “interested party” definition may be considered invalid.

Applicant Challenge

As of July 1, the BDO will not accept challenges based on an applicant’s eligibility. Please see Senate Bill 1405 for more information.

Location Challenge

An interested party may challenge the inclusion of broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) in a proposed project based on the following:

• Existing Federal Commitments: A challenger may protest the inclusion in a project of any location that is currently subject to an existing federal commitment to deploy qualifying broadband service. NOTE: Building through federally awarded areas as part of middle-mile infrastructure to bring broadband to unserved or underserved locations is not grounds to challenge a project.
• Reason Code 5: A challenger may protest the inclusion of any location in a project that is already served by non-subsidized service as outlined by the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice. However, note that reason code 5 cannot be used for low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite service. Also note that pursuant to Sec. 490I.0106(a-1), an eligible broadband infrastructure project may include already served locations, provided that at least 80 percent of the broadband serviceable locations to be served by the project are unserved and underserved locations.

Challengers are responsible for ensuring they provide a detailed narrative setting out the basis of their challenge, together with sufficient documentation to demonstrate that the challenge should be upheld.

In addition to documentation requirements, please note that all challenges must include a completed and notarized Statement on Challenge of an Application to the Broadband Development Office (form 78-701 (PDF)).

For location challenges, please see the following requirements:

• Federal Commitment: A protesting party seeking to challenge the federal commitment status of one or more locations in an application must submit the following documentation:
  • A CSV file of every BSL in the application that the interested party asserts is currently covered by an existing federal commitment to deploy qualifying broadband service.
    The CSV file must clearly list the following for each challenged location:
    • FCC Location ID.
    • Address.
    • City.
    • County.
    • Federal award program.
    • Awarding federal agency.
    • Federal award number.
    • Date of award.
    • Name of recipient organization.
    • Approved period of performance.
    • Minimum service speed requirements.
    • Service technology.
  • A PDF of the official Notice of Award letter associated with the federal program(s), including contact information for the federal program(s).
• Reason Code 5: A protesting party seeking to challenge the non-subsidized service status of one or more locations in an application must unequivocally demonstrate that the location is already served with qualifying broadband (is currently connected or can be connected within 10 business days of a request with a standard installation fee) by submitting the following documentation:
  • A CSV file of every BSL in the application that the interested party asserts is currently served by non-subsidized service.
    The CSV file must clearly list the following for each challenged location:
    • FCC Location ID.
    • Address.
    • City.
    • County.
    • Name of provider providing non-subsidized service.
    • Service technology.
    • Evidence of service, which could include the following:
      • Evidence of subscription (service record).
      • Photographic evidence of infrastructure.
      • Network diagram.
      • Speed test.
      • Attestation from a provisional awardee that it concurs to not accept a BEAD project for the location(s).

An interested party may not use an application challenge to protest the accuracy of the FCC’s National Broadband Map or argue that a project should be disqualified due to perceived inaccuracies in that map.

An application challenge must be submitted on or before the 30th day after the BDO publishes the application information on the Comptroller’s website. Late submissions will not be considered, and extensions will not be granted. The application information was published July 23, 2025.

To effectively submit a completed challenge, an interested party must follow the steps below:

1. Review the list of applications received by the BDO.
2. If an interested party seeks to file a challenge, they must submit (i) a completed and notarized Statement on Challenge of an Application to the BDO (form 78-701 (PDF)), and (ii) all required documentation per the challenge type. A challenge, along with all necessary documentation, must be submitted electronically to the BDO.
3. Late challenges will not be accepted.

The BDO will review each challenge received and issue a written determination as to whether the challenge should be upheld.

Interested parties that have submitted challenges should avoid contacting the BDO directly to inquire on the status of one or more submitted challenges.