National Telecommunications and Information Administration

While broadband advocates appear to broadly support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's move to open up a supplemental funding round to reach remaining unserved Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program locations, it's also clear that many are 

The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is coming back, and applications could open as soon as December. After a federal court ruled in July that the administration could not simply cancel the program, the Commerce Department committed to reopening it under a new Notice of Funding Opportunity. That is good news for the field. But the application window is likely to be short and badly timed, and the organizations that start preparing now will be best placed to compete. Finding the right partner can make or break a joint application, and the clock is already running.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are calling on the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately issue guidance regarding the use of Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds for non-deployment activities so that communities can get funding out the door to eligible projects.

Maverix Broadband pushed back on claims the company has misused millions of dollars in public funding that resulted in the Colorado Broadband Office freezing all projects linked to the company, including rescinding a federal grant for more than $100 million. The report caught the Parker-based internet provider off guard because they had been responding and providing hundreds of documents to state officials for months, said David Lindauer, the company’s cofounder.

The Colorado Broadband Office announced recent actions taken to protect taxpayer funds following an inquiry into the misuse of state and federal broadband grant funding by Maverix Broadband, Inc. After receiving whistleblower reports, CBO took quick action to freeze payments to Maverix, launch an inquiry, move to terminate six active grants, and rescind more than $100 million in provisionally awarded Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment funding that has not gone out yet. 

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is urging the Trump administration to overhaul implementation of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program to ensure BEAD meets its statutory goal to connect every American home and business with reliable, high-speed internet.

According to interviews and research from the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, state broadband officers are exhausted by the challenges and shifting dynamics of implementing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Leaders from the Benton Institute have interviewed over 30 SBOs so far about what it is taking to implement BEAD. And Dr. Revati Prasad of the Benton Institute talked about the takeaways from those conversations in a recent Fiber Broadband Association webinar.

Brandy Reitter, the executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office since February 2022, stepped down after giving the agency two days’ notice. “Yes, unfortunately, OIT received Brandy’s resignation. She will be missed and we appreciate her service to the state,” Erin Jeffreys, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, home to the broadband office, said in an email.

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program has lived a highly dramatic life since Congress created it as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.The most recent high-stakes drama involves the state of California.

California is on the verge of accepting $1.86 billion in federal broadband grant funds, despite the Trump administration telling states they cannot enforce net neutrality rules on any Internet service provider that gets a piece of the grant money.