Colorado Hoping to Up Participation in BEAD Round Two

The state is instituting a higher low-cost plan and more flexible project areas.

Colorado Hoping to Up Participation in BEAD Round Two
Photo of Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge by Mark Byzewski

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2025 –​​ The second round of applications for Colorado’s BEAD dollars is opening soon, and the state is taking a few steps to increase participation and get closer to universal coverage.

Those include a higher low-cost service plan price, more flexibility with project areas, and incorporating new federal guidance on alternative technologies, among other things. It's the result of feedback the state received from ISPs after fielding its first round of applications under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

That round, which concluded on October 29, 2024, yielded bids for about 112,000 homes and businesses, but Brandy Reitter, head of Colorado’s broadband office, said the total BEAD-eligible locations is about 160,000.

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Not every state is sure to do a second round of bidding, but many are open to it depending on how the first round goes. If some locations get no interest, or there is a lot of competition for others, states will want to solicit another set of applications.

“It’s been really great working with the NTIA, the feds, and our governor’s office to figure out ‘What is the best approach for round two?’” she said at an AEI webinar last week. “And I think a lot of states in the West might be in the same bucket, so I would really encourage people to look at those rounds and make sure your strategy meets the mark as far as what you’re trying to achieve with your program.”

The $42.5 billion federal effort is aimed at connecting every home and business without adequate broadband. States are the ones ultimately picking grant recipients, and Colorado was allocated about $826.5 million.

On the low-cost front, the state’s updated round two rules raise the maximum rate to $50 per month for low-income subscribers served by BEAD projects. Applicants can request a waiver to increase that up to $75 per month.

A low-cost offering of some kind is required by the Infrastructure Act, which stood up BEAD, but ISPs have been objecting to the caps set in certain states, arguing they’re infeasibly low. Trade groups had some success getting low-cost option prices closer to market rate in certain states.

The state also got permission from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to waive the usual program requirement that a provider commit to serving every location in a project area, the geographic areas ISPs bid to serve with BEAD support. That effectively makes it easier for providers to construct their own project areas that might provide a more workable business case, similar to having defined small project areas at the outset. 

Small project areas are something Louisiana’s broadband office cited as a driver of its successful auction, although Colorado likely has more ultra-remote passings. Reitter said the state is expecting to bring in state and local dollars to get to those hardest to reach places.

There’s also the matter of the Federal Communications Commission’s latest broadband coverage map, which shows an extra 31,000 previously BEAD-eligible locations are actually served with adequate broadband. Colorado’s map that ISPs are using to bid has already been set in stone, but the state is trying verify that those homes and businesses are actually served as part of the second round.

“We’re going to have to go through a process of verification, and we have some ways to do that that are inexpensive,” Reitter said, “to make sure that those 31,000 locations are actually served.”

Colorado will start accepting its second round of BEAD applications on Jan. 27 and continue through Feb. 28.

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