Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

President Joe Biden has rolled out his Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) plan, which will be subsidized by $42 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That is an obscene amount of money to invest in technology that will be obsolete by the time it's built.

As the US sets out to reach the goal of connecting everyone nationwide to broadband, Telecompetitor’s new online resource, Broadband Nation, is your guide to federal and state broadband initiatives. The Broadband Nation web pages contain a wealth of information about state broadband funding programs, including links to funding program rules, funding awards, state broadband offices and Telecompetitor news coverage. All organized by state and frequently updated. The Broadband Nation includes:

At a time when state and federal governments are funding numerous broadband deployment projects, Utah’s long-lived broadband map has been a big asset. Utah was more successful than any other state in challenging the locations database for the Federal Communications Commission's broadband map, explained Rebecca Dilg, Director of the Utah Broadband Center. The state is well positioned to determine eligible locations for the upcoming Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, Dilg noted. Utah was one of multiple states that used funding from the 

I finished updating the number of Served, Underserved, and Unserved based on the National Broadband map with updates and corrections as of June 15, 2023. Those numbers are available in this tab of the spreadsheet.

[This page is being updated]

"It's the biggest investment in high-speed internet ever. Because for today's economy to work for everyone, internet access is just as important as electricity, or water, or other basic services," said President Joe Biden.

I get asked a lot what I think of the Federal Communication Commission's Broadband Map and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) allocation of the $42.5 billion in broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Here’s what I think: this has been a fair process and a fair outcome. As far as I’m aware, no state has cause to be very upset. I highly doubt we’ll see lawsuits and angry senators yelling at Federal Communications Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration officials.

Word has been circulating that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently informed State Broadband Offices that they must submit a final Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) plan to the NTIA one year after receiving approval of the Initial Proposal of grant rules. The ugly twist is that the NTIA is expecting the Final Proposal to include a final list of all BEAD grant winners. Everybody has always assumed that the Final Proposal would be just that – a proposal that describes and fine-tunes the rules being used to award grants.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has allocated funding to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories to deploy affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service to everyone in America. States, Washington (DC), and territories will use funding from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to administer grant programs within their borders.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $65 billion to expand internet access to all. Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, is the man President Joe Biden tapped to make sure the massive job gets done. In this podcast, Landrieu speaks about the Affordable Connectivity Program – which provides monthly $30 subsidies for lower-income individuals to buy internet access. And Kathryn de Wit, project director for the Pew Charitable Trust's Broadband Access Initiative, talks about why accessing the internet is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

Since Phase I of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) concluded, it has become more expensive to deploy broadband due to rampant increases in construction materials, equipment, and labor costs. Given the challenges, RDOF winners—especially smaller providers—are facing, we appreciate your review of the following options: