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9 <br /> 1 The proposed contract amendment revises the number of addresses funded with County <br /> 2 grant dollars from 9,898 to no less than 6,370 with corresponding changes to the <br /> 3 address list in Attachment B. The amendment also generally prohibits County grant <br /> 4 funds from being to be used to provide service to already served locations. <br /> 5 <br /> 6 2. Expansion of the service area <br /> 7 The original service area defined in the contract only included those areas where the <br /> 8 County had identified unserved households. The North State construction plan extends <br /> 9 beyond that area. The contract amendment proposes to expand the service area to <br /> 10 include the entirety of North State's planned construction. This means that North State <br /> 11 will be obligated to serve any unserved address in the expanded service area and that <br /> 12 those addresses will be automatically added to the list of addresses in Attachment B. <br /> 13 <br /> 14 The only limitation to this obligation outside of the original grant area is if the cost of the <br /> 15 fiber extension would be double the average cost of passing homes in the service area. <br /> 16 The average cost to pass each address is $3,700, so twice the average cost would be <br /> 17 $7,400. This cost is equivalent to an installation of greater than a mile to serve less than <br /> 18 eight homes. <br /> 19 <br /> 20 3. Price and network performance protections expanded to the entire service area. <br /> 21 The original contract included a mandatory low cost service option, limitations on price <br /> 22 increases, and performance guarantees for network reliability and performance for <br /> 23 addresses funded through the agreement. The contract amendment extends these <br /> 24 protections to any address in the service area. <br /> 25 <br /> 26 4. Low cost service offering modified to remove cost barriers <br /> 27 The original contract required a low cost service to be available to subscribers in Orange <br /> 28 County to help remove barriers to access. That original offering was 200 mbps <br /> 29 symmetrical service for $40 per month. The contract amendment proposes to change <br /> 30 the low cost option to 100 mbps symmetrical service for $30 per month which is <br /> 31 equivalent to the discount offered through the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Plan. <br /> 32 Aligning these amounts will remove all cost barriers associated with paying for monthly <br /> 33 service. <br /> 34 <br /> 35 5. Payment schedule revised to reflect new address list <br /> 36 The original agreement required the County to pay up to $10 million in American Rescue <br /> 37 Plan Act (ARPA) funds as a grant to North State in three installments. The number of <br /> 38 connections that would have to be enabled to receive the final installment has been <br /> 39 revised to comport with the new list of addresses, changing from 6,898 to 3,396. <br /> 40 <br /> 41 6. Construction schedule revised to reflect new address list <br /> 42 Based on the location of the households contained in the new list of addresses, the <br /> 43 contract amendment delays the completion of phase 1 of the project from April of 2023 <br /> 44 to June of 2023. The sequencing of the remaining phases is consistent with the initial <br /> 45 plan. The number of homes served during each phase has also been changed to reflect <br /> 46 the change in the number of locations funded with County grant funds. <br /> 47 <br />