HI SB553

Establishes the broadband service infrastructure grant program under the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to award grants for deploying broadband service infrastructure to unserved and underserved areas in Hawaii.

Defines unserved areas as those lacking broadband service with minimum speeds of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream, and underserved areas as those lacking service with minimum speeds of 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream.

Requires applicants to contribute a minimum 20% match of project costs from non-governmental sources and prohibits funding recipients from receiving funds under other federal or state grant programs for the same projects.

Establishes application review process with a 45-day challenge period allowing existing broadband providers to dispute claims that project areas are unserved or underserved, with scoring prioritizing project size, applicant experience, necessity of government funding, and preference for unserved over underserved areas.

Appropriates $5,000,000 from general revenues for fiscal year 2019-2020 to establish and administer the grant program, with the Act taking effect July 1, 2112.