NTIA: 2024 will be ‘year of execution’ for BEAD

2023 set the stage for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced how much funding each state would get and states began drafting their initial proposals. According to Sarah Morris, NTIA’s principal deputy assistant secretary and deputy administrator, 2024 will be “the year of execution” for BEAD. The agency is working to approve states’ initial proposals as quickly as possible so that states can get started on their challenge process. Now that the initial proposal deadline has come and gone, she noted states are “really in the driver’s seat.” The challenge process will take a different amount of time for each state, depending on the complexity of the deployment landscape and how much BEAD funds it received relative to the number of underserved locations in that state.