National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded seven grants totaling $3,449,227.56 to seven Tribal entities as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).  With funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, these new grants bring the total of the program to more than $1.79 billion awarded to 198 Tribal entities. Record investments in high-speed Internet deployment are a key part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

Somewhere above you right now, a plane is broadcasting its coordinates on 1090 megahertz. A satellite high above Earth is transmitting weather maps on 1694.1 MHz. On top of all that, every single phone and Wi-Fi router near you blasts internet traffic through the air over radio waves.

The Federal Communications Commission recently implemented an increase in the monthly Affordable Connectivity Program subsidy in qualifying high-cost areas from $30 to $75. The reason for the change is easy to understand – this was codified in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) legislation.

Since the late 1990s Colorado has tried to expand access to high-speed broadband. It’s been done in starts and stops, and sometimes not at all. Now Colorado is getting a huge amount of federal money, more than $826 million in Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding that was part of the 2021 infrastructure law to help expand broadband internet across the state and the country.

I am the Secretary of Commerce. And my job is to make sure that America can compete that our businesses and our companies can compete effectively in the world, including our small businesses, our family farms, and Americans, American workers. And I have to tell you, you cannot compete if you don't have the Internet. I just talked to a third-generation family farmer here in Wisconsin who struggles because the Internet is expensive and doesn't have high quality, and you all know it. You all have friends and family who don't have it.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) charged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) with establishing the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and ensuring that BEAD-funded broadband infrastructure projects comply with the Buy America Domestic Content Procurement Preference (Buy America Preference) of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA).

Following President Biden’s State of the Union Address in January 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it would take a strict approach to enforcing Build America, Buy America requirements for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Now we’re ready to provide more specifics.

Some states will be filing their initial proposals in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program soon if they haven’t already—and once the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) approves a state’s proposal, the state will be eligible to receive 20 percent of its allocation of funds.

Permitting has long been the bane of broadband deployments across the country, but a little-known federal council is working to change that.

As states prepare to roll out Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program funding they will have to ensure that providers and local stakeholders are educated on the process of being approved to build with that money. Notably, the program’s letter of credit requirement will still be a must-have for those who want to work through BEAD, despite some pushback on that rule.