Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

With over 23 million households relying on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to financially support their connection to…well, everything…it is jarring to think the program may soon no longer exist. Losing this broadband subsidy program will force families to make hard choices and will likely lead to many losing connectivity altogether.  With the value of a network based upon its ability to connect everyone, this is not a good result for our country. Worse yet, a lack of ACP fu

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.

This tracker features information on active Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program challenge processes, including dates for the opening and closing of online portals to submit challenges as well as links to those portals.

Just about six months into his appointed role as broadband director for Nebraska, Patrick Haggerty is upbeat, positive, and taking on Nebraska’s BEAD deployment with a smile.

Before implementing their BEAD programs, every state and territory broadband office will have one last chance to update the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new broadband availability maps by running their own challenge process. This will be the final step in determining which areas are eligible for a BEAD-funded project.

Mears Broadband, a fiber network construction contractor, has launched as a standalone company just in time to support the flood of broadband deployment slated for later in 2024. For the last five years, Mears Broadband was a division of Mears Group, a subsidiary of Quanta Services that provides construction services for fiber broadband projects. CEO Trent Edwards explained the untethering will allow Mears Broadband to make decisions without impacting the 13 other companies within Mears Group.

ACA Connects–America’s Communications Association, the Fiber Broadband Association, and NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, and the Fiber Broadband Association encouraged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to “stand its ground” in prioritizing fiber projects and maximizing the deployment of fiber networks as Congress intended under the Broadband Access, Equity, and Deployment (BEAD) program amid calls for the agency to reject or weaken initial proposals submitted by some states and territories. In 

It’s clear in reading the various proposed Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) rules that State Broadband Offices are following the lead of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and putting a lot of emphasis on making sure that everybody gets served with the grant funding. I’m not sure they understand the costly consequences of this emphasis. There are some passings in this country that are largely unservable.

Broadband vendors continue to speculate on when network operators will resume spending on equipment. According to the latest data points, that might happen in 2024 but could take until 2025. For example, Calix's newest 2024 financial outlook "was significantly weaker than expected," wrote the financial analysts at Rosenblatt Securities.

The Mississippi Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) released its draft State Digital Skills and Accessibility (DSA) Plan for a 30-day public comment period on January 5, 2024. The Mississippi DSA Plan outlines how BEAM will work towards ensuring broadband accessibility, affordability, digital skills training, and digital opportunities for all citizens.