7/18 Deadline for $42.5B Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program
An important program from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is closing soon
Overview and eligible uses: The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program provides new federal funding for NTIA to grant to all fifty states and most territories. Funding is distributed primarily based on the relative number of “unserved” locations (i.e., broadband-serviceable locations that lack access to Reliable Broadband Service at speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream and latency levels low enough to support realtime, interactive applications) in each State and Territory.
Amount: Each State is eligible to receive a minimum allocation of $100,000,000. Each State may request up to $5,000,000 of its minimum allocation in Initial Planning Funds. American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands each are eligible to receive a minimum allocation of $25,000,000. Each of those territories may request up to $1,250,000 of its minimum allocation in Initial Planning Funds. Not less than twenty percent of the total allocation for a State or Territory will be made available at the approval of the Initial Proposal with remaining funds released upon approval of the Final Proposal. After the publication of broadband coverage maps being prepared by the Federal Communications Commission (Broadband DATA Maps), which will be used to determine the number of unserved locations in every State and Territory, NTIA will notify Eligible Entities of their total funding allocations, calculated in accordance with Sections 60102(c)(1) and (c)(3) of the Infrastructure Act, and inclusive of the minimum initial allocation and Initial Planning Funds.
Type: Formula grant
Eligible applicants: States, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Key Dates:
Applications Open - May 13, 2022
Letter of Intent Due - July 18, 2022
Initial Planning Funds Application Due - August 15, 2022
NOFO Link: https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/BEAD%20NOFO.pdf
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.