Here comes the BEAD money...or not

With Louisiana’s submission of their BEAD Final Proposal (FP) to the NTIA yesterday, excitement about Infrastructure Act broadband dollars finally flowing into deployment projects is high. But expectations for BEAD program funding allocation writ large should be tempered. Execution of BEAD in the Pelican State cannot be extrapolated to the country as a whole.

When will BEAD money drop in other states? Conjecture abounds, especially considering the changing political landscape, but many cite the date of states’ Initial Proposal (IP) approval to inform their predictions. States are given 365 days from approval of their IP to submit their FP, which includes a comprehensive list of provisional awards to achieve universal coverage. 

Not being talked about is that fact that many states won’t meet the statutorily mandated 365-day deadline. This is not due to failure from state broadband offices, but to a host of impediments that set states up for an impossible task. Here are just a few:

Alternative Technology Guidance is still not finalized

• Draft guidance from NTIA appeared last August as states were well into their prequalification processes. States were shouldered with additional administrative burdens to revise their IPs (some already approved!), vet new companies, and implement entire evaluation processes in highly technical arenas without the necessary internal expertise capacity. Final guidance is STILL not released, with more than a dozen states well into their provider selection processes. This is why the 2% of BSLs in LA’s FP are not yet assigned to a specific company.

Late RDOF defaults

• States with RDOF awardees that signaled their intention to default award obligations made a decision in the public’s best interest to wait patiently for official default notice. This was done to ensure defaulted locations would get service under BEAD, but unfortunately added months to respective states’ subgrant application timeline. These states will likely be forced to request an extension of their FP deadline.

Challenge approval delays

• NTIA’s process for approving states’ challenge processes and BEAD eligible locations was slow to come together. Some states waited several months post-IP approval for permission to move forward with their application window.  States that saw months-long challenge process approval delays will be hard pressed to meet their deadlines.

Other broadband program execution

• States that made bold investments with ARPA funds (i.e. North Carolina) are still implementing those programs, and will likely hold off on BEAD in order to more accurately pinpoint the delta for ubiquitous coverage between other federal obligations and BEAD.

There are other reasons why states may be unable to meet the 365-day deadline for BEAD allocation. Natural disasters that have decimated networks, small staffs that make federal program execution challenging, etc.

While much has been written (including by me!) about the snail’s pace in which BEAD has been rolled out, it is worth noting that the states’ 365-day window between IP approval and FP submission was always a stretch. I lobbied hard against it to Congress last year. Only the most well-staffed and consultant-heavy states will meet the deadline easily. 

So as we celebrate the first state’s road to BEAD investment (congratulations ConnectLA !), let us be eyes wide open about the timelines for other states.

#BEAD #broadbandforall Bonfire Infrastructure Group