Texas Requests BEAD Project Area Units Comment

August 13, 2024 – The Texas Broadband Development Office released a request for information Thursday on the use of predefined project area units used to design potential projects for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. 

Under BEAD guidelines, states may solicit competitive BEAD proposals on a per-location basis or they can introduce a variety of predefined project area units to solicit proposals for. These predefined area units can be defined by census blocks, municipalities or counties. 

The BDO reported that it has received feedback that a per-location basis will create “highly disparate project proposals, making administration inefficient and resulting in patchwork broadband coverage for Texas.”

Accordingly, the state is looking for information on how predefined project areas should be implemented and which units will be the most effective. Internet service providers, local governments, nonprofits, broadband industry experts, potential applicants and subcontractors are encouraged to respond to its request. 

In addition, it is requesting information on whether subgrantees would consider filing a joint application with another provider to service a predefined project area.

The $42.5 billion BEAD program allocates $3.3 billion to Texas to connect every unserved and underserved addresses in the state to high-speed internet. Many states have submitted and received approval for the second volume of the program’s Initial Proposal, which outlines the subgrantee selection process. 

Texas has not received approval for the second volume of its Initial Proposal.