NTIA's Davidson Sees 'Increased Cadence' Approving BEAD Plans
NTIA expects it will finish reviewing most initial plans for the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program next month, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said on a conference call with Vermont broadband officials Thursday. Montana, Oklahoma and Vermont may access…
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more than $1.6 billion combined from the $42.5 billion BEAD program, NTIA said earlier in the day. The federal agency approved volume 2 of each state’s initial plan. NTIA allocated about $628 million to Montana, $797 million to Oklahoma and $228 million to Vermont. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for half the 50 states, plus three territories and the District of Columbia. The pace of approvals has quickened lately, with NTIA clearing six plans last week (see 2407260035). Davidson noted an “increased cadence” of approvals, with the agency signing off on three or four plans each week. The NTIA administrator expects that pace will continue through the summer. While expecting the “bulk” of reviews to be done by September, Davidson said there might be “a few small stragglers.” Vermont is “very excited to move from planning to action,” said Christine Hallquist, Vermont Community Broadband Board executive director, on the same call. Vermont expects it will collect bids this fall and winter and hopes to start releasing funds in Q3 2025, Alexei Monsarrat, said a rural broadband technical assistant specialist with Vermont.