Funding
NTIA Official Says Rural Broadband Funds Do Not Disqualify Area from New Broadband Monies
While NTIA will interpret grant funding under the law, it’s up to states to determine where to allocate money.

January 19, 2022 – The federal government agency charged with the task of doling out the $42.5 billion of broadband infrastructure funding hasn’t ruled out the idea of letting grant applicants use the money allocated to them from the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act to cover areas that will also be covered from grants given to projects from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
The Commerce Department’s Scott D. Woods said the “policy team is working on [this]” and to “stay tuned” to further announcements. As a general rule, areas don’t “have federal assets for the similar purposes in the same area,” but there are “nuances to that.”
Woods is the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s director of the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives at the agency’s Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth.
He made the remark during a recent “Ask Me Anything” interview with Broadband Breakfast Reporter Justin Perkins. Broadband Breakfast is a sister publication to Broadband.Money and is a privately-run media and conference company headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Grant applicants concerned about this specific issue should submit questions about it for the record in comments they should submit to the NTIA, Woods said. All comments are due February 4, 2022.
The Federal Register notice and instructions on how to file comments is here.
More information, including the NTIA’s scoring criteria for grant applications, will be found in the Notice of Funding Opportunity coming out in May.
Doug Dawson, an influential broadband consultant of CCG Consulting (and blogger) wrote a blog post early January implying that RDOF covered areas wouldn’t be eligible for IIJA grant funding.
During the AMA, Woods took questions from the Broadband.Money community and discussed IIJA’s compatibility with RDOF, expectations for state plans, private-public partnerships, and the role of the community.
While the NTIA will be interpreting the terms of the grant funding as laid out in the IIJA, it’s up to the states to determine where to allocate the money.
The “state plans…ultimately have to reflect the needs of the unserved [and] underserved communities,” Woods said.
Perkins also emphasized how important it is “for the communities to give their input sooner rather than later, so that the NTIA can develop regulations that are really going to reflect the needs that these broadband programs are asking for.”
Despite the expedited timetable laid out in the IIJA, Woods said that states should be ready to submit rigorously-planned proposals to the NTIA when they ask for federal funding for their five-year broadband plans.
Some states don’t have any formal broadband offices in place, but most already have some basic organizational structures. Woods said that the NTIA is there to help states that might need more hand-holding through the grant application process.
Role of public-private partnerships
Woods also discussed the importance of private-public partnerships.
These partnerships will help with infrastructure, as well as “equity, inclusion, [and] adoption,” he said.
Public-private partnerships are built on “trust and transparency,” said Woods.
“There’s a lot of work to do, as well,” said Woods. “Trust is based on your words and your actions.”
One community member asked when the NTIA will announce its decisions on its $288 million for broadband infrastructure program, a separate broadband program funded under the 2021 appropriation bill. Woods said to check NTIA’s website, and that these announcements will be coming “soon.”
Woods also emphasized the importance of the role of the community to the forthcoming years-long broadband buildout. Everyone need to “provide information, to provide data, to provide feedback on what’s needed in the community.”
Instead of favoring one technology over another, such as fiber over wireless, the NTIA is going to “leave it to the states…to adopt what best works for them and their communities.”
“There’s a role for all technologies,” he said.
A version of this piece was originally published on Broadband.Money on January 19, 2022. You can find out more about Broadband.Money‘s past and future events and AMAs here. Don’t forget to come and participate in our discussion on Friday over who should receive IIJA money, in your opinion, and our Friday, January 28, 2022, Ask Me Anything! event With Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO @ SiFI Networks.
Funding
State Broadband Officers Outline BEAD Implementation Efforts
Broadband heads from 5 states listed community outreach, mapping, and program deadlines as top priorities for BEAD.

WASHINGTON, September 25, 2023 – State broadband leaders addressed on Friday their key areas of focus as they look to allocate billions in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants.
The conversation took place at the Broadband Breakfast BEAD Implementation Summit, along with panels of other federal grant program officials, service providers, and investors. The $42.5 billion program is getting under way, with states releasing their initial proposals for implementing it and hearing public comments. Those proposals are due to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration by December 27.
Community outreach
Broadband heads cited engaging with communities – especially around challenges to broadband map data and fostering internet adoption – as being essential to the success of the program.
In New Jersey, broadband office leader Valarry Bullard and her team organized a listening tour. They go to churches and community centers to explain how high-capacity internet can play a role in people’s lives and local programs, without, she emphasized, jargon or acronyms.
“You kind of meet people where they’re at, you know?” she said.
Arkansas broadband director Glen Howie said his team went to all 75 counties in the state to explain how mapping challenges will work and work with counties to set up local broadband committees.
“You go into a county and you tell folks they have an opportunity to challenge their internet availability, they get fired up,” he said.
Mapping and data
As part of their proposals to the NTIA, states are required to outline a process for accepting challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s map of broadband coverage. That map, now on its third iteration, is based on coverage reported by internet service providers, which is widely considered to be overstated.
Those map challenges will be crucial, both for BEAD and other federal broadband programs, the panel said.
“It’s the foundation of all of our programs. We spend a huge amount of time on mapping,” said Angie Bailey, North Carolina’s head broadband officer. “We can’t do this work without strong, location-level mapping.”
In Maine, Andrew Butcher and the Maine Connectivity Authority have been investing in broadband mapping efforts for years, he said. A parallel mapping process to the FCC’s has helped them allocate previous broadband funds and confirm coverage reported by providers.
“It has allowed us to have a data-driven conversation, as opposed to a policy of dibs,” he said. “We want to understand where there’s service and where there’s not.”
Timelines
Deadlines, both for submitting initial proposals and awarding subgrants, are on broadband leaders’ minds. Those initial proposals are being submitted in two parts, and states have one year from the approval of part II to award their entire BEAD allocations.
That has Howie’s office in Arkansas worried about completing the challenge process, grant awards, and state rulemaking before the deadline
“The one year, arbitrary timeline that we’re all under at the moment is a huge concern for us,” he said.
Taking time on the initial proposal deadlines is helping states with smaller and newer broadband offices, like Bullard’s office in New Jersey, she said, learn from other states and prepare for the task ahead of them.
“Our plan will be submitted December 27, probably at 11:59,” she said. “It’s giving us some more time for that investment. We’re learning more about our counties… we’re connecting with our community anchor institutions.”
If you missed the BEAD Implementation Summit, sign up for Broadband Breakfast’s BEAD Starter Pack for $35/month (cancel anytime). You’ll get access to all the videos and each of the three Breakfast Club reports prepared for the BEAD Implementation Summit:
- July 2023 – A Deep Dive into Allocations Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program
- August 2023 – Precursors to BEAD Implementation: A Deep Dive Into Prior Broadband Programs
- September 2023 – A Deep Dive into the BEAD Program’s Matching Funds
Already a Broadband Breakfast Club member? Watch the videos!
Funding
Michigan Island Asks FCC to Require Fiber for Some Carriers
Missing out on BEAD-funded fiber could ‘materially impair’ the Beaver Island’s ability to compete, a local committee argued.

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2023 – A small Michigan island, Beaver Island, is asking the Federal Communications Commission to require broadband carriers receiving legacy federal funds to lay fiber-optic cable, or face competition from other providers.
The 55-square mile island is the largest in Lake Michigan and had a population of 616, according to the 2021 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Beaver Island’s Joint Telecommunications Advisory Committee made the request in a September 18 filing to the FCC asking that the commission reconsider its adoption of the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model, or Enhanced ACAM. That model updates the previous allocation of federal money from the Universal Service Fund to internet providers in rural areas.
The model makes $13.5 billion available through 2028. It allows carriers to continue receiving funding if they upgrade or continue to provide service at 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) upload by 20 Mbps download – regardless of the technology they use to do so.
This, the island’s committee says, will prevent the island from being reached with fiber-optic cable, the highest capacity, most future-proof broadband technology. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, established in 2021, allocates $42.5 billion for states to expand broadband infrastructure, but disqualifies areas already served by federal funding.
Michigan’s broadband office estimated its portion BEAD funding could provide fiber-based internet to every location in the state currently receiving less than 100 * 20 Mbps service. That covers all of Beaver Island. But the island expects its providers will take the Enhanced ACAM money and update their older, copper-based equipment to meet speed requirements rather than compete at auction for BEAD grants to build fiber.
“Rather than assuring [sic] those areas affected by the Order will receive adequate service,” the filing reads, referring to the commission’s official adoption of the new model on September 1, “the Order instead all but guarantees they will receive a service that will quickly become outdated.”
The committee said in its filing that in order for an Enhanced ACAM recipient to prevent an area from being eligible for BEAD funding, it should be required by the FCC to use fiber.
Providers have until September 29 to accept or deny Enhanced ACAM funding.
Funding
BEAD Director Says NTIA is Working on Changes to Letter of Credit
Evan Feinman, speaking at the BEAD Implementation Summit, said the agency will also issue guidance on project auditing.

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2023 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is working on changes to the letter of credit requirements for its flagship broadband grant program, according to the program’s director Evan Feinman.
The letter of credit requirement in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program requires providers receiving grants to expand infrastructure to obtain a letter of credit from a bank for 25 percent of the project cost.
That means awardees will have to back the letters with cash, which many in the broadband industry have said will push small and community providers out of BEAD projects.
Feinman said the letter of credit requirement accomplishes two goals for the NTIA: it promises some recovery if a project fails, and offers a chance for third-party financial analysis of projects.
“What we did not do was offer a menu of options to do that. We are hard at work on that now,” he said. “You’re going to hear more from us about the letter of credit requirement in the relatively near future.”
The discussion was part of a question and answer session with the broadband community at the Broadband Breakfast BEAD Implementation Summit on Thursday.
The summit also featured state broadband leaders, other federal grant program officials, investors, and service providers in conversations about key focuses as states work to allocate and deploy BEAD funds.
When asked about a provision in the program allowing for internet service providers accepting grant money to conduct self-audits, Feinman said the NTIA, the agency responsible for administering the program, will be issuing more guidance to states on how to monitor BEAD projects.
That guidance will not be created in the next three months, though.
“We have deep financial resources in the bank, but our human capital is not as thick as you might like,” he said. “We got to do initial proposals,” he added, referencing grant procedures which states will be submitting to the agency until December 27.
A new model for broadband expansion
Feinman repeatedly drew comparisons to the effort to bring electricity to rural America in the 1930s, but said that BEAD is different from other federal grant programs.
“This is not a normal grants program. This is in fact, not a grants program at all,” he said. “This is a universal coverage broadband infrastructure program. The tools that are being used to get there are grants.”
He said the program is a departure from previous broadband funding efforts because so much of its goal – universal broadband coverage in the U.S. – hinges on working partnerships, both between federal and state officials and between local governments, providers, co-operatives, and communities. That’s because of the complexity of the task and the sheer number of people who need to understand that task to accomplish it.
“This room, we have our hands on the pen. We are writing the next chapter of the great American infrastructure story,” he said at the event. “But this is going to require a true whole-of-society effort.”
If you missed the BEAD Implementation Summit, sign up for Broadband Breakfast’s BEAD Starter Pack for $35/month (cancel anytime). You’ll get access to all the videos and each of the three Breakfast Club reports prepared for the BEAD Implementation Summit:
- July 2023 – A Deep Dive into Allocations Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program
- August 2023 – Precursors to BEAD Implementation: A Deep Dive Into Prior Broadband Programs
- September 2023 – A Deep Dive into the BEAD Program’s Matching Funds
Already a Broadband Breakfast Club member? Watch the videos!
-
Community Broadband3 weeks ago
Rural Broadband Provider Touts Cooperative and Coalition-based Models
-
Broadband Roundup4 weeks ago
5G Fund for Rural America, FCC Disaster Information Reporting System, US Cellular Expands 5G,
-
Digital Inclusion4 weeks ago
FCC and HUD Partner to Promote Internet Subsidies for Housing Assistance Recipients
-
Funding4 weeks ago
Proposed Buy America Waiver Makes BEAD Projects Feasible, Say Fiber Manufacturers
-
Funding3 weeks ago
A Deep Dive into the BEAD Program’s Matching Funds
-
Broadband Roundup3 weeks ago
NTIA Announces Middle Mile Funds, NDIA Director on Closing Digital Divide, More Tribal ACP Outreach Funds
-
Broadband Roundup3 weeks ago
FCC Waives Hurricane Idalia Rules, North Carolina Awards, Fiber Deployment in Kansas
-
Environment4 weeks ago
Transition to Fiber is Essential for Reducing Telecom Emissions: Expert