Trade groups write playbook for spending infrastructure money

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association plan to publish a playbook to assist state governments as they receive broadband funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The $42.5 billion that is dedicated to broadband will flow through a new program called Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD). The program will be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which has been tasked with distributing the $42.5 billion to administrators in all 50 states as well as territories and the District of Columbia. Currently, the top job at the NTIA has not been filled with a Senate-appointed candidate. But Alan Davidson has been going through the confirmation process and is likely to be confirmed soon. In the meantime, the FBA and NTCA are working on their Broadband Infrastructure Playbook to help state governments. There isn’t any nationally-coordinated broadband template that all states use. The playbook that the trade groups are developing will provide a detailed overview of the statutory requirements of the new broadband infrastructure law and an overall program plan with sequencing and timing of activities. It will also include templates for filing state funding applications. The guide will be published in early 2022 in advance of the NTIA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity, which is expected by May 2022.