Even Though NTIA Approved Louisiana BEAD, Delay by NIST Keeps Shovels at Bay
Obscure National Institute of Standards and Technology agency has kept state from building broadband.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 26, 2025 – Even though the U.S. Commerce Department agency responsible for broadband officially approved federal funds for Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada, those state broadband offices are unable go forward because an unrelated federal agency — the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) – has not done its routine check-off.
Louisiana broadband office Deputy Director Thomas Tyler recounted the dilemma that ConnectLA, his office, faces in a session on federal broadband funding here Tuesday at the Metro Connect conference.
Then-National Telecommunications and Information Administrator Alan Davidson approved Louisiana’s final proposal on Jan. 13, one week before Inauguration Day. That was supposed to mark the starting gun for Louisiana to begin putting shovels in the dirt for construction under the $42.5 Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.
Louisiana was the first in the nation to receive approval, but Delaware received its approval on Jan. 14, and Nevada received it on Jan. 17.
But funds can’t be sent to the states from the Treasury Department until NIST issues a ministerial approval. That can only happen after NTIA’s approval, which has officially already occurred.
“NIST is another Commerce agency that is basically the grants administrator for NTIA,” explained Tyler. Even through NTIA issued a announcement that each of the three states’ plans and budgets were approved before January 20, that request for approval didn’t get sent over to NIST before the Inauguration.
And because of that, when “everybody came in with the new administration and kind of stopped working to gauge the room and what was going on,” said Tyler. Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada were left in a state limbo. They are "officially" approved, but without ability access those “approved” funds and begin work.
“We’re ready to go,” Tyler said in the session. ”We’re ready to really build up the networks that are needed in the state,” Tyler said.
"We have good intel, that that hopefully should happen soon," he said hopefully.
As with many Senate-confirmed government officials across the government, Davidson resigned from NTIA on Jan. 20. No additional state broadband proposals have been approved by the agency since.
There is uncertainty about the next steps under the BEAD program – even if many observers expect that the program will still continue.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry used the announcement of and confirmation of Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary to encourage the Trump administration to use the BEAD program to get broadband deployed in heavily rural communities.
And, on Tuesday’s panel, Tyler urged the private-sector broadband executives in the audience to be more active in supporting BEAD.
“The lack of advocacy of those who are directly set to benefit from this $42.5 billion at the federal level is astounding to me,” he said. “It’s time to really make your case. Our governor can’t do that for everybody.”
States proceeding with challenge processes
Notwithstanding the holdup at the first three BEAD-approved states, other state are continuing in the midst of their challenge approval process. Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Missouri and Connecticut closed their challenge application windows thus far in February.
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Illinois’s challenge approval process closes Wednesday, Colorado’s closes on Friday, and Virginia’s closes on Saturday.
Speaking about the process on the panel, Tamarah Holmes, director of the Virginia Office of Broadband, highlighted the importance of complying with the challenge deadline on Saturday.
“We have 133,000 locations that are eligible for BEAD,” said Holmes, noting that, once the NTIA approves its final approval, the states are under a 12 month deadline to make their broadband awards.
Lori Adams, vice president of broadband policy and funding strategy for equipment manufacturer Nokia, highlighted just how significant it was for electronic fiber-optic equipment to be manufactured in the United States for the BEAD program.
“There are 45 companies that have self-certified products that are manufactured in the U.S. to be compliant with BEAD,” she said.
“The more that is shifted over to the alternate [non-fiber] technology space means that less is invested in U.S. manufacturing,” she said.
