The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) opened the third—and, given the dollars remaining, likely final—competition for funding under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). Congress created the roughly $3 billion program in two pieces: $980 million through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and $2 billion through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This third round makes up to $540 million available—what's left after two earlier notices of funding opportunity (NOFOs) in 2021 and 2024. The rules governing who can win it, and how, will impact connectivity for Tribal Governments, Tribal Colleges and Universities, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) on behalf of the Native Hawaiian Community, Tribal organizations, and Alaska Native Corporations—as well as for the people who live on the lands those entities serve.

Applications are due September 17, 2026, and NTIA does not expect to begin announcing awards until Spring 2027.

The Program, in Brief

Congress authorized the TBCP in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260), and expanded its funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58). The program funds two distinct categories of activity: 1) Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Projects, which build networks, and 2) Broadband Use and Adoption Projects, which fund programs supporting remote learning, telework, telehealth, and other broadband adoption activities. An applicant may seek funding for one category or the other in this round—not both.

This is NTIA's third NOFO under the TBCP. The agency held Tribal consultations on January 13 and January 20, 2026, to gather input on how to structure this final round. NTIA is "focused on maximizing the impact of the remaining TBCP funding by streamlining program requirements, reducing unnecessary burdens, and ensuring the program works in concert with" the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. NTIA says explicitly that "TBCP applicants that support BEAD deployments will be weighted more heavily than TBCP applicants that do not." 

Who Can Apply, and for What

TBCP "Eligible Entities" are: Tribal Governments; Tribal Colleges or Universities; the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), on behalf of the Native Hawaiian Community, including Native Hawaiian Education Programs; Tribal organizations; and Alaska Native Corporations. Consortium applications—coalitions of Eligible Entities applying together as a single entity—are also permitted. 

Each Eligible Entity may submit only one application, covering either a Use and Adoption project or an Infrastructure Deployment project, but not both, and may not participate in more than one application of any kind. NTIA warns that an entity found to be participating in multiple applications risks delaying—or losing—consideration for all of them. Tribal subsidiaries (for example, a Tribal College that is part of a Tribal Government) may still submit their own application, but every Infrastructure Deployment application requires a Resolution of Consent¹ from each Tribal Government on whose land the project will be built—including from the Tribal Government itself when its own subsidiary applies. Eligible Entities applying for either project type must also submit a Tribal Government Resolution² or equivalent authorization to apply.

Notably, having received TBCP funding before doesn't disqualify an entity from this round: the NOFO states that "Eligible Entities that previously received TBCP grant funding may apply for additional grant funding pursuant to this NOFO." The same applies to Consortia—a lead applicant that received funding in an earlier round may form a new Consortium with Tribes that didn't receive funding in either of the first two rounds. 

Unlike some other federal broadband programs, TBCP carries no cost-sharing or matching-funds requirement. NTIA will not require an Eligible Entity to contribute non-federal funds toward a project. That said, voluntarily including matching funds doesn't go unnoticed: while it carries no weight during Merit Review, it is one of the factors the OICG Associate Administrator and the Assistant Secretary may consider at the later selection stages.

How Much Money Is Available, and Where It's Going

NTIA expects to make awards within these ranges, which are described as targets rather than hard caps:

• Use and Adoption Projects: $500,000 to $2,500,000 per applicant (or per Consortium member, without additional justification)
• Infrastructure Deployment Projects: $1,000,000 to $25,000,000 per applicant (or per Consortium member, without additional justification)

Applicants proposing amounts outside these ranges must justify the variance.

NTIA will allocate up to $500,000 to each Federally Recognized Tribe³ that has not previously received TBCP funding (including prior equitable distribution awards), regardless of how it scores in competitive review, as a backstop if NTIA cannot otherwise fully fund the Tribe's request. This is not a funding cap—Tribes can and should seek more—but it is a floor intended to ensure no Federally Recognized Tribe is left with nothing.

By statute, NTIA must reserve at least 3 percent of TBCP's total appropriated funds—roughly $90 million across all three NOFOs—for the Native Hawaiian community (see 47 U.S.C. §1705(c)(3)(A)). NTIA allocated $30 million to DHHL in the program's first NOFO (2021) and $60 million in the second (2024). After subtracting those two prior allocations from the $90 million statutory floor, this third NOFO makes $6,526.15 available to DHHL. That figure—yes, that's a few thousand dollars, not millions—reflects how close to fully exhausted the statutory Native Hawaiian set-aside already is, and stakeholders in Hawaii should understand that this round offers DHHL essentially no new dedicated funding beyond that token amount, separate from whatever DHHL might compete for as an Eligible Entity in the general pool.

What Applicants Must Show

Every applicant must submit standard federal grant forms (the SF-424 application, lobbying certifications, a Project Information Form, and a Funded and Unfunded Entity Form) along with a Tribal Government Resolution and certifications regarding debarment and suspension. Applicants whose budgets include indirect costs—overhead costs, like accounting, HR, or facilities, that support a project but aren't tied to one specific activity—and who receive more than $35 million in federal funding annually, or who already have one, must submit a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement⁴ (NICRA), a custom rate negotiated with a federal agency based on the applicant's actual cost data. Applicants without a NICRA may instead elect a 15 percent de minimis indirect cost rate—a standardized rate set by federal cost-principle regulations so organizations without the capacity to negotiate a custom rate can still recover some indirect costs.

For both project types, the Project Narrative must include a 1,000-word Executive Summary, a description establishing the applicant's eligible-entity status, a "Demonstrated Need" section grounded in data—not demographics alone—and a description of Funded Activities tied to measurable outcomes in areas like workforce development, education, health, or "Delivery of Other Essential Services." [NTIA notes that it may use all or part of an applicant's Executive Summary in its own press releases, and advises applicants not to include trade secrets or confidential information there.]

Infrastructure applicants face additional, more technical requirements: GIS shapefiles mapping proposed and existing infrastructure, Tribal boundaries, and household and community anchor institution (CAI) connections, consistent with NTIA's Broadband Analytics and Monitoring system; physical network diagrams; a Network Sustainability Plan with pro forma financial projections; and documentation of environmental and historic-preservation compliance, including photographs of any building over 50 years old that the project would affect. Use and Adoption applicants must instead show, among other things, a price comparison demonstrating their proposed service is competitive and affordable, and a plan to scale the program over time.

Both Infrastructure and Use and Adoption applicants must include a 500-word "Alignment with Existing Programs" component in their Project Narrative—a direct mechanism by which NTIA's BEAD-weighting policy gets put into practice. Applicants must describe their coordination with their state's broadband office, including how their proposed project aligns with that state's BEAD implementation plan, and disclose whether they have obtained a Tribal Resolution permitting BEAD deployment on Tribal land. Use and Adoption applicants must additionally state whether their project will support locations already slated for BEAD-funded service. Infrastructure applicants must instead describe their broader prior experience coordinating with state and federal broadband initiatives. In practice, this means the BEAD-alignment preference discussed above isn't just a scoring factor applied after the fact—applicants are required to make their BEAD coordination, or lack of it, explicit on the page.

Both project types require disclosure of all other federal, state, or outside funding the applicant has received or sought—explicitly including BEAD and the Treasury Department's Capital Projects Fund—and a certification against duplicative funding.

What the Money Can—and Can't—Be Used For

TBCP grant funds may pay for broadband infrastructure deployment (including submarine cable landing stations), affordable broadband programs, distance learning, telehealth, digital inclusion (which may include workforce development), and broadband adoption activities. Administrative costs—direct and indirect combined—are capped at 2 percent of the award. Infrastructure applicants may also use up to 2.5 percent of total project cost for planning, feasibility, and sustainability studies. Reasonable pre-award costs, capped at 5 percent of the award or $50,000, may be reimbursed if incurred after this NOFO's publication and approved in writing by NTIA.

The NOFO also sets out specific restrictions on three categories of Use and Adoption activity that stakeholders should read closely:

• Device distribution programs: No markup on device cost is allowed. Recipients must be U.S. citizens age 18 or older who complete a training program leading to a certificate (the NOFO refers to this as a "Learn to Earn" model). Smartphones may not be distributed. Generally, no more than one device per household is allowed, absent a demonstrated need for additional devices.
• Remote learning programs: NTIA "discourages" applications targeting individuals under 18, and any such application will face additional scrutiny and must include safeguards addressing the "pedagogical and developmental impacts of remote or screen-based instruction on children."
• Broadband subsidy programs: Subsidies must go directly to the service provider, not the household; the subsidized service must meet or exceed 100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload; subsidies cannot duplicate FCC Lifeline; and a subsidy program must be paired with digital skills training or require a cost contribution from the beneficiary.

A flat prohibition on profit or fees above actual cost applies to all funded activity, and recipients may not use grant funds to purchase "covered communications equipment or service" as defined under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019—the law behind the FCC's "Covered List" of equipment from companies such as Huawei and ZTE. Other ineligible costs include funding for infrastructure already completed before the award period, costs duplicative of other federal or state programs, and infrastructure contingency costs above 15 percent of equipment and construction costs.

How NTIA Will Decide Who Gets Funded

NTIA will review applications in three stages: Initial Eligibility and Administrative Review, Merit Review, and Programmatic Review. Applicants who fail the first stage—because they aren't an Eligible Entity, didn't submit a required Tribal Resolution, or submitted incomplete or late materials—are eliminated, though NTIA may give an applicant one chance to cure an incomplete application within seven calendar days.

Before Merit Review, NTIA sorts every surviving application into one of three priority tranches, and works through them in strict order, moving to the next tranche only if funds remain:

1. Standalone Use and Adoption projects from a Tribal Government (or its designee) that has issued a Tribal Resolution approving BEAD deployment on its land;
2. Standalone Infrastructure Deployment projects serving Unserved Households; and
3. All other projects—explicitly including connections to community anchor institutions—aside from Equitable Distribution awards, which are reviewed separately as a backstop.

Within each tranche, two or more reviewers independently score applications from 0–100 against criteria specific to project type. A score of 65 or above is "Qualified for Funding"; below that, an application is removed from consideration, with no rounding up. For Infrastructure projects, 10 of 20 "Project Purpose and Need" points are tied directly to the share of unserved locations the project would connect—full points only for proposals reaching 100 percent. Speed scoring rewards proposals at or above 100/20 Mbps with full marks, even though the program's baseline "Qualifying Broadband Service" standard is only 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload.

Applications that clear Merit Review move to Programmatic Review, where NTIA staff check budgets and screen for duplication—including cross-checking against applications under the Digital Equity Act's Native Entities Grant Program (NEGP), the National Broadband Map, and the FCC's Broadband Funding Map. If NTIA finds an application qualified under this NOFO that duplicates one qualified under the NEGP, it will decide which to fund based on available money. The Associate Administrator for NTIA's Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth then recommends a slate of awards to the NTIA Assistant Secretary—the program's Selecting Official—who weighs factors including geographic distribution, whether the applicant has matching funds, and whether the applicant has already received TBCP funding before making final recommendations to a NIST Grants Officer, whose decision is final.

Compliance and Accountability After Award

Recipients must comply with the government-wide Uniform Administrative Requirements (2 C.F.R. Part 200), submit semi-annual financial and technical reports, and publish an annual report on how funds were spent, including the number of locations served. NTIA will share that reporting with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for use in their own broadband funding decisions, and will transmit reports to the Senate and House Commerce Committees.

Infrastructure projects are subject to Build America, Buy America domestic-content requirements, with waivers available in limited circumstances and subject to public comment. Notably, the NOFO states that the Davis-Bacon Act's prevailing-wage requirements do not apply to the TBCP, so Tribes may use Tribal Force Account Wage Rates⁵ instead. Recipients must also align cybersecurity practices with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and CISA's Cybersecurity Performance Goals. Recipients accepting Commerce Department financial assistance must certify, under Executive Order 14173 ("Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity"), that they do not operate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that violate federal anti-discrimination law.

NTIA may de-obligate or terminate a grant if funds no longer serve program goals or agency priorities, after providing notice and a rationale, and reserves authority to recover misused funds and refer matters for civil or criminal enforcement.

What Stands Out

Several of the items below represent real new constraints on how Tribes can use TBCP funding. NTIA frames all of them as part of a single rationale: with roughly $540 million left against a need that ran well into the billions in the program's first round, the agency says it is trying to avoid duplicating other federal investment and stretch what remains as far as possible. Set against this, the program still carries no matching-funds requirement, and Tribes funded in earlier rounds remain eligible to compete again.

Infrastructure award ranges have been cut compared to the second round.

NTIA's 2023 second-round NOFO set Infrastructure Deployment awards at $1 million to $50 million per applicant, with a $50 million per-member cap for Consortium applications, and Use and Adoption awards at $100,000 to $2.5 million.⁶ This third NOFO cuts the Infrastructure ceiling in half, to $25 million (per applicant or per Consortium member), and raises the Use and Adoption floor fivefold, to $500,000. Tribes planning large-scale infrastructure builds, in particular, should not assume the prior round's award ceiling still applies.

Standalone CAI connections sit in the lowest review priority tranche.

The NOFO places standalone connections to schools, libraries, health clinics, and other community anchor institutions in the third and last review tranche, behind both standalone Use and Adoption projects tied to BEAD and standalone infrastructure to unserved households. Combined with NTIA's instruction that it will "narrowly interpret" what counts as a "community support organization" within the CAI definition, "consistent with BEAD," this means anchor-institution connectivity—long a priority for Tribal libraries, health programs, and schools—faces a real ceiling on how readily it can compete for these dollars.

Explicit, heavy weighting toward applicants that support BEAD.

The NOFO states outright that "TBCP applicants that support BEAD deployments will be weighted more heavily than TBCP applicants that do not," and that preference recurs throughout the review criteria, the prioritization tranches, and the OICG Associate Administrator's selection factors. For Tribes whose states haven't prioritized Tribal lands in their BEAD Final Proposals, or whose experience coordinating with their states' BEAD implementation has been difficult, this could be a real disadvantage relative to Tribes whose states have moved further or faster on BEAD. Since BEAD covers every state, DC, and the territories, the risk isn't geographic exclusion from BEAD—it's uneven prioritization of Tribal lands within a state's plan, which this NOFO's weighting effectively imports into the TBCP review.

Restrictions on serving minors.

The TBCP's authorizing statute lists "remote learning" as an explicit eligible use, which historically has meant serving K-12 students. This NOFO instead "discourages" remote-learning applications aimed at people under 18 and subjects them to additional scrutiny, while separately barring device-distribution programs from serving anyone under 18 at all. The NOFO does not explain the rationale for either restriction, a notable gap for an audience planning programs for Tribal youth.

100/20 Mbps subsidy standard sits well above the program's baseline service definition.

"Qualifying Broadband Service"—the standard used to define "Unserved" households and to set infrastructure speed scoring—requires only 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload. Yet broadband subsidy programs must subsidize service of at least 100/20 Mbps. Applicants designing subsidy programs should not assume the program's general speed floor applies to them.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

Recipients must certify that they do not operate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that "violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws"—a conditional standard, not a blanket prohibition on diversity or inclusion programming as such. Tribal applicants and their counsel should read this language precisely rather than assuming it forecloses all such programs.

"Underserved" is undefined.

Unlike BEAD, which directs funding to both "unserved" and "underserved" locations, this NOFO defines only "Unserved" and ties infrastructure prioritization and scoring specifically to "Unserved Households." Tribal Lands that have some service below the Qualifying Broadband Service thresholds but are not fully unserved do not appear to have a defined path to the infrastructure priority tranche or the related scoring credit—a gap worth confirming with NTIA before applicants assume otherwise.

Timeline

The application window opened June 17, 2026. Complete applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on September 17, 2026. NTIA expects to begin announcing awards on a rolling basis starting in Spring 2027.

Award terms carry their own clock. Recipients have 18 months from the date they receive their grant funds to "commit" them—generally by providing proof of procurement or an approved project budget—or the uncommitted funds become available to other Eligible Entities. From the date funds are received, recipients then have four years to spend them. Extensions are available: Use and Adoption recipients can seek one for good cause, and Infrastructure recipients can seek one if they show their project is underway, has a credible completion plan, or faces extenuating circumstances. A request for either kind of extension must be submitted with the application itself or no later than 90 days before the four-year period ends.

Notes

1. A Resolution of Consent
   

   is a formal, written document adopted by a Native American tribe's governing body (such as a Tribal Council) that explicitly grants permission for an outside entity to operate, build, or conduct a specific project on tribal lands

2. A Tribal Government Resolution is a formal authorization from the governing body of the Eligible Entity (or, for a Consortium, from each participating Eligible Entity) certifying express authority for the entity—or the lead applicant, in the case of a Consortium—to file a TBCP application on its behalf. NTIA will also accept "equivalent formal authorization" in place of a resolution where a Tribal Government's own governance procedures don't produce a resolution as such.
3. A federally recognized tribe is an American Indian or Alaska Native tribal entity that is recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the United States, with the responsibilities, powers, limitations, and obligations attached to that designation, and is eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Furthermore, federally recognized tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government (i.e., tribal sovereignty) and are entitled to receive certain federal benefits, services, and protections because of their special relationship with the United States. At present, there are 575 federally recognized tribes, American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages. [See https://www.bia.gov/faqs/what-federally-recognized-tribe]
4. A Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) is a formal agreement with a federal agency that establishes the allowable percentage used to recover overhead costs (like facilities, human resources, and administration) on federal grants.
5. Tribal Force Account Wage Rates refer to the compensation paid to a tribe's own direct employees ("force account labor") for construction or maintenance projects, rather than using outside contractors. Many tribes set their own rates under tribal law to bypass standard federal Davis-Bacon or HUD-determined prevailing wages.
6. NTIA, second-round TBCP NOFO (2023), Section II.C ("Award Amount"), broadbandusa.ntia.gov, ntia.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/ntia-tbcp-round2-nofo.pdf; see also NTIA, "Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program FAQs" (2023), broadbandusa.ntia.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/TBCP2_FAQs_2023.09.27.pdf

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