For several months the telecommunications world has speculated on the future of the Broadband, Equity, and Access Deployment Program (BEAD). Congress created the program as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with the purpose of extending broadband coverage to all underserved and unserved communities. Program changes by the Trump Administration reduced expected spending by $21 billion. Since then, the broadband community has been waiting to see whether this money would be spent and for what purposes. Now, commendably, it is good to see that the first guidance on additional spending goes right to the heart of BEAD’s purpose.
On September 3, NTIA issued guidance regarding how some of the money will be allocated. Briefly, the funds will be available for a second round of proposals to extend deployment of broadband to all Americans. This is the proper focus.
Although the BEAD program was supposed to allocate enough funds to accomplish this goal several months ago, NTIA anticipates three sources of new locations that still require funding. The first are areas that remain unserved due to defaults in other federal and/or state programs. The second are projects that suffered from misreporting by providers. The final source stems from changes to the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband DATA maps since completion of the final proposals. These locations either suffered from misfortune caused by others or, in the case of the DATA maps, were assumed not to exist.
In its Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice NTIA spells out new procedures that Eligible Entities (States, Territories, and the District of Columbia) can follow to request part of the $21 billion to fill in these remaining unserved areas, hopefully completing BEAD’s purpose: to extend broadband service to all areas of the country. NTIA's new Policy Notice builds on BEAD’s original Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Eligible Entities are expected to provide connectivity to all unserved locations within the constraints of the additional funds. However, additional funds are available in extraordinary circumstances.
It is reassuring that the initial plans for spending the Benefit of the Bargain Savings (the $21 billion) will deal directly with BEAD’s main purpose: completing the spread of broadband to all parts of the country. There may need to be further guidance, however, on how many areas NTIA believes still need to be funded or how much it will cost. Some approved projects have already experienced defaults. Inflation, difficulty obtaining state and local permits, and time constraints will likely result in others.
The procedure for allocating additional funding builds on the original round. NTIA will review the DATA maps to ensure their accuracy in locating additional locations to be served. NTIA will then determine an upper limit of funding to serve these new locations. This amount will be based on the average cost of serving a location and the additional unserved locations. NTIA states that other uses of BEAD will be addressed in subsequent guidance.
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