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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 143 / Thursday, July 29, 2021 / Notices tests from a sufficient number of locations.
The following sections describe the details of the proposed testing process.
These technical details serve as a guide to both the Bureau and the providers doing the testing in determining:
Where, within the geographic boundaries of the coverage map, a provider should conduct testing;
how many locations a provider must test;
what speed test measurements will be accepted for staff analysis by the Bureau; and how Bureau staff will evaluate the test data and adjudicate whether the provider has passed or failed the testing process.
B. Sample Frame Construction
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To select locations for testing, one must first construct a list known as a sampling frame or frame of possible locations to select from. The construction of this frame is a multi-part process. First, we propose creating a set of eligible populated areas. Census blocks eligible for frozen-support
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funding would be included, and these census blocks would be merged with the populated areas of the Alaska Population Distribution model. Second, the Form 477 reported coverage for which a provider committed to deploy subject to testing would be merged with the eligible populated areas to create a set of covered populated areas. Third, a grid of 1 km x 1 km squares would be overlaid onto the covered populated areas.1 Due to the fact that the Alaska Population Distribution model uniformly distributes population within the populated area of a block, the covered populated areas of a block would likewise have a uniform 1 Staff proposes to use this particular type of grid because census blocks are not of uniform geographic size, which could require a different number of speed tests for each block, and, in turn, could increase the testing burden on providers.
Grids of smaller sizes and shapes were less likely to provide easily accessible areas for testing given the nature of roads and population distribution in remote Alaska, and grids of larger sizes and shapes would provide more heterogeneous wireless performance, which would require more cumbersome rules for actually conducting drive testing to ensure geographic diversity of the sample within each grid.

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population distribution. The total population of each grid cell is the sum of the populations of the covered populated areas contained within a given grid cell. For example, if a grid cell contains 25% of the covered populated area of a census block, that grid would be credited with 25% of that blocks covered population. That same grid cell might also contain 100% of a second census blocks covered populated area. So all of that census blocks covered population would be credited to that grid cell, and the grid cells total population would be the sum of these two populations. Lastly, any grid cell that contains fewer than 100,000 square meters of covered populated area, or 10% of the grid cell, would be excluded from the frame. This ensures that all grid cells have a reasonable testable area, reducing burden on providers. Grid cells with smaller levels of covered populated area were less likely to have areas that were publicly accessible or large enough to conduct mobile testing. Figures 14
below detail this process.

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