States Push Forward on BEAD Despite Rule Changes and Tight Deadlines
State broadband leaders outlined Wednesday the hurdles they have faced and the progress made in adapting to NTIA’s revised BEAD guidelines. During a Broadband Breakfast webinar, just one day before new final proposals are due, officials acknowledged the difficulties but emphasized that the process is advancing states toward universal coverage.
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Texas Broadband Development Office Director Bryant Clayton noted that the state received an extension from NTIA until Oct. 27 to submit its revised final BEAD plan because of the surge in applications it received during the "Benefit of the Bargain" round.
"That's still a time crunch for Texas," Clayton said, adding that the state is undergoing application reviews. Texas received more than 70 applications totaling $6.4 billion in funding requests. NTIA allocated it $3.3 billion in BEAD funding. Clayton said the public comment period for its new plan will begin Oct. 13.
The public comment period "is the very tip of the iceberg" of what's needed in community engagement to ensure that local communities' broadband needs are best met, said Maine Connectivity Authority President Andrew Butcher. He emphasized the need for states to conduct meaningful reviews of their public comments, noting that some feedback his office received made its way into the state's final plan.
NTIA removed local support from the BEAD scoring guidelines, making it a challenge because "that is not what we do," said Minnesota Office of Broadband Development Director Bree Maki. Her state won't fund a project if it doesn't get community support or tribal consent, she noted. "We're doing our very best to stay engaged."
Maki said it's been a "huge lift" for her office to balance the state's grant programs with BEAD because of certain rules set by NTIA. She cited Minnesota's and NTIA's differing definitions of what's considered unserved and underserved (see 2508270070). Explaining that difference to consumers, ISPs and other stakeholders has "been a challenge," she said.
"We're just throwing the best thing we can right now" while "working with our federal partners to get this cleaned up," Maki added.
However, not all states have experienced significant challenges. Butcher said Maine has been able to move quickly in getting funding to "work as quickly as possible" through a "strong public-private partnership." Still, the BEAD program "is an absolute beast," he said, noting that the state would submit its new final proposal Wednesday. It would award about $48.4 million of Maine's $272 million allocation for deployment projects with an average cost of about $2,080 per location.
"Ultimately, 100% of the BEAD-eligible locations in Maine are going to be served through these applications, which is a tremendous milestone," he said. About 85% of awards will go to fiber, 14% to low earth orbit satellites and about 1% to hybrid projects. At a separate Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday, CEO Gary Bolton noted the importance of fiber in states' new BEAD plans (see 2509030031).
Officials defended the large cost savings that some states have seen as a result of the new BEAD application process. One reason is that "we've been chipping away at the problem [and] making it smaller for the last three years," Butcher said: "I think the real conversation that we should be making sure we focus on is what happens next from the deployment of the infrastructure." Maki said the process has been "challenging at best, but we're trying to manage expectations, the program and making meaningful broadband change in the state."