Texas Approval Turns Big Corner for BEAD

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2024 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration approved Texas’s plan to implement a more than $3 billion broadband grant program. The agency has now approved every state and territory plan for their slice of Infrastructure Act funding.

With all proposals greenlit, the NTIA will now be focused on approving lists of eligible locations – states have to field and adjudicate local challenges to government broadband coverage data – and approving final plans for funding specific projects.

There’s been speculation among industry watchers that the future Donald Trump NTIA might modify rules for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program in a way that sees non-fiber infrastructure get a bigger piece of the pie. Trump is cozy with satellite ISP owner Elon Musk and they’ve both criticized BEAD’s fiber preference.

BEAD’s director sought to dispel those rumors last week, saying he and his team don’t plan on leaving and that he expects the guidelines to stay consistent.

Tuesday’s final approval comes just under a year after all 56 states and territories submitted their BEAD plans in December 2023.

The agency said in a blog post that a total of sixteen states had received approval of their post-challenge data, a necessary step before soliciting grant applications. At least eight states are currently accepting grant applications or negotiating with providers to secure universal coverage under BEAD.

States have one year from the approval of their proposal to select the infrastructure projects they want to fund and submit that spending plan to the NTIA. Louisiana, which has completed its final proposal, has until next month to submit, with the next wave of deadlines coming next spring.

Texas’s challenge process, which officials plan to last 120 days in total, is set to begin December 3. The state had not publicly posted Tuesday volume two of its proposal, the newly approved part that details how it will administer grant funding.

Louisiana is the only state so far to finish its project selection process. The state will fund fiber broadband for more than 95 percent of its 140,000 eligible homes and businesses, with fixed wireless and satellite taking the rest. The exact terms of the state’s satellite grants are still being figured out, and it’s not clear how much funding will go to SpaceX or Amazon’s Kuiper, the two satellite ISPs that were cleared to participate in BEAD in the state.