Another Twist in The BEAD Grant Process?

Word has been circulating that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently informed State Broadband Offices that they must submit a final Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) plan to the NTIA one year after receiving approval of the Initial Proposal of grant rules. The ugly twist is that the NTIA is expecting the Final Proposal to include a final list of all BEAD grant winners. Everybody has always assumed that the Final Proposal would be just that – a proposal that describes and fine-tunes the rules being used to award grants. Most State Grant Offices have assumed that they would have multiple years to pick BEAD grant winners. The BEAD grants are complex, and reviewing and resolving grants that ask to serve overlapping areas is going to add a lot of complication to the process. If the NTIA really insists on a speedy timeline, it will be creating a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF)-type disaster. The only way to get this process done in a year (or even 18 months) would be through a single round of grants – done hastily. With a tight time frame, the grants won’t be reviewed closely and grants that include errors will be pushed through. broadband providers that aren’t really qualified will sneak through. I’m hoping that this is just a trial balloon being circulated by the NTIA to get feedback, and if so, every State Broadband Office needs to push back hard.