Why the Complexity?

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While there has been a lot of activity on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program, there is still a long way to go before this grant money is used to build new broadband infrastructure. Most of the delay is due to the incredible complexity of the BEAD grant rules. The priority for state grant programs is usually to quickly get the money out the door and spent on infrastructure. Why are the BEAD grants so complicated? It starts with Congress, and a lot of the complexity is directly specified in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act legislation that created the grants. My pet theory is that the complexity was introduced by lobbyists of the large broadband providers that wanted to make the grants unfriendly to everybody other than big providers with the resources to tackle the complex rules. The big challenge facing state grant offices is how hard they are willing to push back against the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the agency embellished and strengthened the congressional language and made it even more complex to file for grants.


Why the Complexity?