Stakeholders Talk, NTIA Listens on How Best to Deploy BEAD Nondeployment Funds

States, territories, and their communities that lack sufficient internet access have been wondering what will happen to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program's "nondeployment funds"—funds left over after a state meets BEAD’s infrastructure deployment goals. Since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) June 6 BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice—which left the fate of these funds up in the air—broadband and digital equity stakeholders have been waiting with bated breath to hear more from the agency about whether or not nondeployment funds will be made available, and what that might look like. On February 10, Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified before the Senate Committee on Appropriations and confirmed that NTIA has no intention of keeping states from receiving all allocated funds, including nondeployment funds. On Wednesday, NTIA held its first of two listening sessions on the "Use of BEAD Funds Saved Through the Trump Administration's Benefit of the Bargain Reforms." Almost fifty people—out of over a thousand in attendance—were able to speak, for two minutes each, about what the nondeployment funding would mean to them. Here are some of the major arguments for what to do with those funds voices during the listening session.