States will soon dole out federal funding for broadband internet. Not every state is ready for the task

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program differs from previous federal broadband programs because it promised to allocate the funding to individual states and allow them to figure out the best way to distribute the funds. Once states receive their broadband funding, they still have to set up a mechanism to request proposals from internet service providers, grade the proposals that come in, and oversee the challenge process for rejected proposals that is likely to follow. Some of the initial 20% of the funding that states receive will be used for those purposes. Only after the awards are made and challenges settled will the providers ramp up their workforces, purchase the relevant equipment, and begin work. So while the broadband funding holds great promise for the 11.2 million locations across the country that do not have access to a high-quality broadband connection, many still have a long wait ahead of them.

[Brian Whitacre is a professor and the Neustadt Chair in the department of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University]