Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

In October 2022, I wrote a blog about a bipartisan attempt to exempt broadband grant funding from being taxable income. Unfortunately, Congress has still not moved this legislation forward.

Build a buffer is Shelby Pardy’s advice to operators thinking of participating in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Pardy, an analyst for Vantage Point Solutions, points out this is more than budgeting extra dollars for inflationary pressures.

In Wisconsin, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Nokia and Sanmina Corporation in Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County, Wisconsin to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to invest in high-speed internet, boost domestic manufacturing, and create good jobs.

Senator [Tammy] Baldwin (D-WI) and I served together in the United States Senate. And it is, indeed, with her help, all across Wisconsin, that President Joe Biden and I have been able to create jobs, expand opportunity, and strengthen American manufacturing. We are here to discuss our continuation of that work. Take, for example, our work on high-speed Internet. In America in the 21st century, high-speed Internet is not a luxury.

Nokia is teaming with longtime manufacturing partner Sanmina to bring production of fiber network electronics to Wisconsin, hoping the move will help it bring in the cheese when money starts flowing from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

NTCA –The Rural Broadband Association and the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) released the first module from their new “Playbook 3.0,” the latest iteration of their joint “Broadband Infrastructure Playbook.” The first module is dedicated to permitting and will be followed by other modules that will address issues like cybersecurity, supply chain risk management, and broadband coverage challenge processes. Since early 2022, NTCA and FBA have collaborated to help state broadband offices and interested stakeholders prepare for funding from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD)

BroadbandOhio has drafted Volume 1 of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Initial Proposal including: identification of existing broadband efforts, existing unserved and underserved locations, and community anchor institutions as well its detailed challenge process plan.

When it comes to connecting residents to broadband, counties need to speak up with detailed information about their unserved and underserved areas and work closely with their state broadband directors to get their fair share of federal dollars. “Get involved — go to your state broadband director – get to know them,” said Luis Acuña, Southwest regional director for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). “They can weave your needs into their plan.

As states draft their initial proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is striving to help broadband offices tackle the cybersecurity aspect of the BEAD guidelines. Essentially, states must verify the vendors and suppliers to whom they award contracts have “adequate” cybersecurity and supply chain risk management (C/SCRM) plans.

A small coalition of internet service providers (ISP), broadband associations, and digital equity advocates is emerging to warn that a requirement for service providers to provide a letter of credit in order to participate in the federal government's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will "shut out a huge number of ISPs." The $42 billion BEAD program requires grant recipients to provide a letter of credit for 25% of the award, in addition to a 25% match requirement.