NTIA Clarifies Frequent Questions on BEAD Guidance
States and territories can't set forth a specific rate for a low-cost service option in BEAD, even if that rate is required by state law, according to new NTIA guidance issued Tuesday. The agency's 63-page FAQ document on BEAD covers an array of topics, including whether subgrantees can use BEAD-funded facilities to provide other offerings, such as telephone and video (they can), and how applicants are supposed to track their 2% administrative costs.
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ACA Connects applauded NTIA "for holding the line against harmful rate regulations and following the law to ensure investment and competition is protected in the BEAD program."
The document says the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bars NTIA or the Commerce assistant secretary overseeing NTIA "from engaging in rate regulation." Since the assistant secretary has to approve the low-cost service option in the state's final proposal, "the rate contained may not be the result of rate regulation." The BEAD restructuring notice issued in June (see 2506060052) eliminated previous BEAD requirements dictating price and other terms for the required low-cost service option, the FAQ document says, and states can't now apply state laws to reimpose low-cost service option requirements that have been removed.