Guidance and Application Materials for $1.5 Billion BEAD Program to Expand High-Speed Internet Access in North Carolina

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity today published the subgrantee selection process guidance and application materials for the revised Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which provides $1.5 billion in federal funding for high-speed internet infrastructure projects in North Carolina. Internet service providers that submitted prequalification materials by July 7 may submit applications through July 30. On July 7, the division also updated the BEAD-eligible locations in the BEAD Planning Map, part of the NC OneMap’s broadband mapping resources. In limited cases, stakeholders may make additional modifications to BEAD-eligible locations before the data is submitted to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as part of each state’s final proposal. The division will hold a webinar on Tuesday, July 22 to answer questions on the subgrantee selection process only for broadband providers prequalified to participate in the BEAD program or those working through the prequalification process. A webinar for stakeholders including counties and local leaders will be held Wednesday, July 23 at 10 a.m. to provide updates on all the division’s broadband infrastructure programs, including the BEAD program.