BEAD Cost Caps

Most States have now sent final Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment proposals to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with a list of the proposed internet service providers to win BEAD funding for every eligible location. The next step is for NTIA to review grant applications, which is now underway. NTIA has already been contacting States and establishing a cost cap for each State based on the CostQuest cost models. Several States have reported that NTIA is instructing the State to outright reject any proposed award that is more than 85 perent of the cost cap. This seems to be a tool to get the broadband office to cancel grants rather than NTIA having to be the heavy. What’s clear is that the bottom-line result of applying a cost caps will mean a lot more locations awarded to satellite or other low-cost technologies.