On September 3, 2026, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice to allow states, territories, and the District of Columbia (known collectively as Eligible Entities) to access additional BEAD funding to address locations that may remain unserved due to defaults in other federal and/or state programs, misreporting by providers, and other changes to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) broadband DATA maps since the completion of their federally approved deployment plans (called "Final Proposals"). Adhering to the requirements of this new guidance will likely add nine months or more to the BEAD process.

The policy notice matters to a wide range of stakeholders:

• State broadband offices now have a defined, time-limited process and a hard funding ceiling for reaching locations that fell through the cracks since they finalized their Final Proposals.
• Internet service providers gain a new, abbreviated opportunity to challenge which locations are added to this second round, but the evidentiary bar is explicit and higher than a provider's mere claim of service.
• Digital equity and rural advocates might note what this notice does not do: it does not touch the broader question of how states can use the roughly $21 billion in savings NTIA says the program generated for anything other than reaching unserved locations. NTIA says other ("non-deployment") uses "will be addressed in subsequent guidance."
• Policymakers and researchers get a window into how NTIA is managing the gap between the FCC's evolving broadband maps and the funding decisions NTIA already locked in with states.

Eligible Entities must comply with the requirements outlined in the Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice to access additional BEAD funds.¹

How (NTIA Says) We Got Here

Congress created BEAD in 2021 with passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the 2021 infrastructure law), and directed NTIA to allocate money to each state and territory based on the number of unserved and underserved locations identified on the FCC's National Broadband Map at a specific point in time, and then required each Eligible Entity to run a "challenge process"—a period in which providers, governments, and others could dispute which locations actually needed funding—before committing money to specific broadband network deployment projects. All eligible entities were notified of their total allocation in June 2023.

In June 2025, NTIA issued the Restructuring Policy Notice, which the agency says "returned the BEAD Program to its statutory mission of ensuring universal broadband availability through competition and accountability."  The 2025 notice introduced what NTIA called the "Benefit of the Bargain" reforms, which, according to the notice, put the program "on track to connect every BEAD eligible location while reducing costs by $21 billion and securing almost $12 billion in private matching funds."

With NTIA's approval of all 56 states' and territories' Final Proposals, NTIA is now taking "the next step in BEAD implementation" by issuing guidance on how to use the savings from the Benefit of the Bargain process.

NTIA says this guidance follows extensive outreach with more than 1,700 attendees and 175 speakers across three NTIA listening sessions, and more than 200 written comments "from industry, state officials, and broadband advocates." The notice states that "one consistent theme throughout these comments was the importance of addressing additional locations that remain unserved due to defaults in other programs or changes that have occurred since Eligible Entities submitted Final Proposals."

NTIA identifies three specific reasons additional locations may now need BEAD funding, none of which existed—or were fully known—when states finalized their Final Proposals:

• Defaults in other federal or state broadband programs. NTIA excluded certain locations from BEAD eligibility because they were already covered by enforceable commitments under other programs funded with non-BEAD money. Some of the providers in those other programs have since defaulted on their build-out obligations, and—unlike BEAD—those programs "did not have a process to find a new provider to cover those locations."
• Locations removed through the BEAD challenge process that were never actually served. Some locations were dropped from BEAD eligibility because a challenger claimed the location already had service. NTIA now says some of those locations "have not been served by the providers that brought challenges based on claims of service."
• Newer versions of the FCC's broadband map. The FCC's broadband data has continued to change since each state ran its challenge process, and NTIA says the current map "identify[ies] additional unserved locations that were not included in earlier versions" of the FCC's Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, the FCC's underlying inventory of every individual location in the country that could receive broadband service, known as "the Fabric."

What the New Notice Requires

The notice sets out a seven-step sequence from defining which locations qualify through NTIA's final sign-off on each state's plan, followed by separate budget-modification rules. The subsections below follow that same order.

1. Scope: only locations missed the first time around

NTIA is explicit that this notice covers only "unserved locations not addressed through the now completed Final Proposal process," not any other use of program savings.

2. The Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location List

NTIA will generate a new list—the "Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location List"—for each Eligible Entity, built from Version 8 of the FCC's Fabric (December 2025). The list will:

• exclude any broadband serviceable location ("BSL," the term for an individual home or business that could receive service) that is no longer in Version 9 of the Fabric (June 2026), and any BSL the entity's Final Proposal already addressed, including locations already excluded under "reason codes 1–7" (defined in a separate NTIA document, linked in the Sources section, that this notice does not reproduce);
• add back—
  • locations removed from other federal programs due to a provider default (as long as the funding agency reported that removal to NTIA and the FCC's Broadband Funding Map by September 3, 2026),
  • locations "incorrectly reported as served" in earlier FCC map versions, and
  • new unserved locations the current Fabric identifies that were never previously part of it; but
• not account for state- or local-enforceable commitments—Eligible Entities must handle those themselves (using "reason code 4").

3. Review, publication, and the abbreviated challenge process

Each Eligible Entity has 30 calendar days from receipt of the list to complete an initial review and apply reason codes, including removing locations covered by state- or locally enforceable commitments. Within 7 calendar days of finishing that review, the entity must publish its revised list for public inspection and open an abbreviated challenge process.

Under that abbreviated process, "broadband service providers, local governments, and nonprofit organizations"—the notice does not mention individual residents or consumers as eligible challengers—have 30 calendar days from publication to submit evidence that a listed location already has BEAD-qualifying service, or qualifying planned service, and should be removed. The notice is explicit that "this abbreviated challenge process will only be used to remove locations from the Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location List. No new locations may be added."

This process is a scaled-down version of the process NTIA laid out in its BEAD Challenge Process Policy Notice in February 2024. Specifically, entities may not use it to reclassify a location from "served" or "underserved" to "unserved," and they are not required to sort challenges into discrete types such as speed tests or availability disputes. Most notably, the notice states plainly that "There will be no rebuttal round." Entities must decide each challenge using only what was submitted during the 30-day challenge window.

The challenger bears the burden of proof. A provider's own signed statement that it serves a location—what the notice calls "attestation"—is not enough by itself, and neither is a location's mere presence on the FCC's National Broadband Map; the notice states plainly that both are "not sufficient evidence." The notice lists the kinds of evidence NTIA considers acceptable (described in detail below). Eligible Entities must retain that evidence and make it available to NTIA on request, and NTIA "reserves the right to reverse the Eligible Entity's determination" if needed to ensure compliance. Entities have 30 calendar days after the challenge window closes to decide every challenge, and must apply "unbiased" standards of evidence "equally to all technologies and challengers."

4. NTIA review and the funding ceiling

Once the challenge process concludes, the Eligible Entity submits its final Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location List to NTIA. NTIA then sets a dollar ceiling for that entity's second round: the entity's average cost of deployment per BSL under its already-approved Final Proposal, multiplied by the number of locations on the new list. Note: This formula assumes the newly identified unserved locations will cost about as much to serve, on average, as the locations in the entity's original Final Proposal. The notice does not address whether these residual locations—often the hardest-to-reach or previously written off as served—are likely to be more expensive to build to than the original average; that is a real possibility state broadband offices may want to test against their own data.

Entities are expected to serve every location on the approved list within that ceiling. If an entity later determines the funding is insufficient, it may request more, but only by demonstrating "extraordinary circumstances," meaning it has "taken all practicable steps to complete deployment within its established amount," including using "the most cost-effective technologies." This cost-effectiveness/technology-neutral framing echoes language throughout the June 2025 Restructuring Policy Notice, though this document does not itself redefine which technologies qualify.

5. The second "Benefit of the Bargain" round

Once NTIA approves an entity's final list and funding ceiling, the entity has 90 calendar days to run a second "Benefit of the Bargain" round — NTIA's competitive subgrantee-selection process — to select providers to serve the newly identified locations. This round must follow the same rules as the first: the statutory requirement that entities prioritize funding for "priority broadband projects" (a term defined in the statute at 47 U.S.C. §1702(a)(2)(I) and further elaborated in the the 2025 notice, neither of which this notice reproduces or summarizes) and the same applicant requirements and certifications imposed by the 2025 notice and NOFO for the first round.

After that round, the entity submits a Supplemental Deployment Plan and a proposed budget modification to NTIA, using NTIA's Final Proposal Funding Request Project Plan/Narrative Sample as a guide.

6. NTIA's final approval

NTIA has 90 calendar days to approve each Supplemental Deployment Plan. The NTIA Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth "reserves the right to reject any project proposal that lacks sufficient detail, fails to meet the requirements specified in this Policy Notice, or imposes unreasonable costs on the program." Plans will be "scrutinized for excessive deployment costs based on the cost characteristics of the area to be served." And, in a sentence that reiterates the scope limit noted above: "No additional uses of funds outside of those permitted in this Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice will be authorized at this time."

7. Budget Modifications 

Entities may first try to cover the costs of running the abbreviated challenge process and second Benefit of the Bargain round within their existing Final Proposal Funding Request (FPFR) budget, contacting their assigned Federal Program Officer beforehand if they expect to need a formal budget modification. After the second round, entities must submit an updated consolidated budget form and a project narrative addressing only what changed.

These programmatic costs are exempt from BEAD's statutory two percent administrative cost cap. Personnel and fringe-benefit costs are allowable for all activities in the notice. For the challenge process and second Benefit of the Bargain round specifically, contracts are allowable, but subgrants are not, meaning entities can hire contractors to help run these processes but cannot pass the work down to a subgrantee.

Finally, none of the activities in this notice may be paid for with a state's Initial Planning Funds (BEAD's earliest, smallest funding stream). Entities must close out and transfer any remaining Initial Planning Funds to their budgets no later than June 30, 2027. NTIA adds that "guidance about moving Initial Planning Funds is forthcoming," meaning the compliance deadline is already set even though the guidance for how to meet it has not yet been published.

The notice states that "NTIA and [the National Institute of Standards and Technology] will review the proposed budget modification to ensure the costs are reasonable and allowable."

How Long Will This Take?

The notice's own deadlines, run sequentially from release, put the outside end of this process about nine months out from the time when Eligible Entities receive their lists. Assuming the second Benefit of the Bargain round proceeds on the timeline the notice lays out:

• Eligible Entities have 30 calendar days to complete their initial review of the list and apply reason codes, then 7 more days to publish it and open the abbreviated challenge process.
• The challenge window itself runs 30 calendar days, followed by another 30 calendar days for the Eligible Entity to decide every challenge.
• The notice does not say how long NTIA then has to review the final list and set each entity's funding ceiling, a real gap in an otherwise fully scheduled process.
• Once NTIA does approve the list and ceiling, the entity has 90 calendar days to run the second Benefit of the Bargain round and submit its Supplemental Deployment Plan.
• NTIA then has up to 90 calendar days to approve that plan.

Add up only the deadlines the notice actually states, and the fastest an Eligible Entity could plausibly have an approved Supplemental Deployment Plan is roughly nine months after receiving its list. Only the 30-day challenge window is a period that must fully run its course; every other number is a "by this date" NTIA and the entities have committed to, with no stated consequence if either side runs long, and the undefined step in the middle (NTIA's review of the final list and funding ceiling) has no deadline at all. Nine months is what happens if nothing slips. 

What Counts as Evidence in a Challenge

NTIA lays out, as "illustrative only," the kinds of evidence a challenger can submit to argue a location should be removed from the Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location List:

• The baseline standard. A successful challenge must show BEAD-qualifying service already exists, or will exist within 12 months of the date of this notice. That service must meet the standards in NTIA's Performance Measures for BEAD Last Mile Networks Policy Notice: actual (not "up to" or marketing) speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, latency of no more than 100 milliseconds round-trip to the nearest FCC-designated internet exchange point (IXP—a physical location where different networks connect and exchange traffic), and a "standard installation"—new service must begin within 10 business days of a request, with no charges or delays for extending the provider's network.²
• Existing customers. A provider may point to a current customer, or one within the last 12 months, at a specific location—but "evidence of a customer in one location is not evidence of qualifying service in a different location." 
• Network design, performance data, and physical verification. Providers can submit network architecture and engineering documentation demonstrating sufficient capacity from the last mile to the nearest IXP; performance data comparable to BEAD's own performance measures or to similar federal programs, including FCC high-cost programs; and photographs that supplement (not replace) the network design documentation.
• Technology-specific evidence. A propagation study (a technical analysis that predicts a wireless signal's real-world coverage) may be sufficient for a fixed-wireless network. A wireline provider may need as-built network diagrams from a geographic information system (GIS) showing proximity to customers and "segment capacities."
• Planned service. For locations where service doesn't yet exist but is planned within 12 months, acceptable evidence includes documentation of completed and remaining construction, permits obtained, completed pole attachment agreements, or a binding contract or other agreement with the Eligible Entity.

Emphasis on Unserved

Stakeholders should note that this notice mentions twice that it covers only deployments to unserved locations, not other uses of the roughly $21 billion in program "savings." NTIA's own listening sessions reportedly drew comments on "the appropriate use of the Benefit of the Bargain Savings" in general. Affordability, digital equity, middle-mile, and any other use of those funds await the "subsequent guidance" NTIA says is still coming.

Notes

1. The notice does not override existing law or regulation, and anything the notice doesn't explicitly change remains governed by the original NOFO and by NTIA's June 2025 BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice.
2. The technology used must fall within FCC Broadband Data Collection Technology Codes 10, 40, 50, 61, 70, 71, and 72 (the notice does not list what each numbered code represents). IYKYK.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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