Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Maryland just scored over $267 million in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding. Kenrick Gordon, Director of Maryland’s Office of Statewide Broadband, is optimistic the amount will help fuel deployments, but he thinks it’ll take a couple of years before the money is available for broadband providers. Gordon said Maryland is currently working on its initial BEAD proposal and once it’s submitted, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has to review and approve it.

Discussions about funding for social programs are too often framed along predictable partisan lines. However, the reality on the ground is frequently more complex, and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is no exception.

Dr. Cindy Firkins Smith doesn't mince words: "Rural health care is on the precipice of a crisis," she said. Minnesota state data show doctors in rural areas are older than those in urban ones, and one in three rural physicians plan to leave the workforce within the next five years, which could have "potentially devastating effects," said Smith. But one solution that can help bridge some of the gap: telehealth. The problem?

I’m starting to see situations where a shortage of construction labor is causing problems for some broadband providers. The supply chain issues for materials have largely been solved but the supply chain for construction contractors is a worsening situation for many providers. To give an example, I know a broadband provider with a long history of building networks that recently went to bid for two projects that are being funded by local American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant funding.

How can we make the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding go as far as possible? The answer is that state grant plans need to be laser focused on how to generate competition and keep costs as low as possible. If we can do that, we stretch the BEAD dollars as far as possible. If we don’t, we run out of money. It’s really quite easy to construct this framework. We only need two pieces of data: the number of unserved and underserved locations, and what we pay to reach them.

Colorado secured a whopping $826 million in funding from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which according to state lawmakers will help connect over 99% of Coloradan homes by the start of 2027. The collaboration of federal agencies, namely the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission, along with Colorado’s local stakeholders, served as a model for “how work gets done,” said Brandy Reitter, the Executive Director of the Colorado broadband office. As of now there are around 190,000 Colorado ho

The Federal Communications Commission has a specific set of environmental rules that must be followed when building any telecommunications infrastructure. Broadband providers that haven’t built on park lands or were funded by certain federal broadband grants probably never heard of these rules. But the rules apply to all telecommunications construction. The reason providers probably haven’t heard about these specific rules is that the FCC has largely put providers on the honor system to meet these guidelines.

New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin says that cable operators will have a lot of opportunity to snag Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds for locations that are out of—but proximate to—their existing footprints.

When state preemption laws on municipal broadband expansion are too restrictive, local leaders should learn how to work around bureaucratic red tape so they can deliver critical internet access to their communities, says Christy Baker-Smith, a director of research and data at the National League of Cities (NLC). State-level legislative restrictions can exacerbate local digital divides and resident burdens, said Baker-Smith.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will regularly post Digital Equity plans on this website. If you’re unsure about when your state’s digital equity plan will be available for public comment, we recommend bookmarking the link and checking it frequently. The public comment period is a mandatory step in the State Digital Equity Plan process that solicits a public response and comments on the draft plan. To know when to expect your