The number of eligible BEAD locations dropped again

All 56 states and territories this week received approvals on their resubmitted proposals for how they would spend money received through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. But data shared in those proposals show that the total number of BEAD eligible locations across states has decreased on average by 14%.

States were notified in early June they’d be required to resubmit their BEAD proposals in order to receive their portion of federal broadband funding, when Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick announced major changes to the program’s guidance. But before they could conduct another round of subgrantee selection, the NTIA was required to accept the proposals, which it did following the announcement made by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Monday.

Lutnick had made the requirement mandatory for every state, even those that had already seen their final BEAD proposals approved by the NTIA under former President Joe Biden.

The Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School aggregated and analyzed the updated BEAD eligibility lists, and in a report released Tuesday, found that overall, the total number of eligible locations across states decreased by about 14%.

Researcher also found that the total number of unserved and underserved location counts has plummeted overall by an average of 65%, when compared to data from December 2022 when BEAD funding was first allocated.

The ACLP released a report last May finding that more than half of locations originally eligible to receive federal BEAD broadband funding were no longer eligible. That report attributed the changes to a variety of sources, including continued investment by internet service providers to extend their networks, and additional grant-funded projects via American Rescue Plan broadband funds and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a program the FCC created during Donald Trump’s first presidency.

As part of the new BEAD guidance, states broadband offices have updated their maps of eligible unserved and underserved locations over the last several weeks, leading up to the mandatory “benefit of the bargain” round of subgrantee selection. The NTIA in June said the additional round of bidding will help all applying internet service providers — including fiber, satellite and fixed wireless providers — to compete on a level playing field.

The volume of eligible location drops varies widely across the states. In some cases, there were no changes, while others, like Connecticut, saw an 88% drop in the number of eligible locations.

The NTIA said eligible states and territories have until Sept. 4 to complete at least one “benefit of the bargain” round and to submit a final proposal that reflects the results of that round of subgrantee selection.

The NTIA has also created a new BEAD progress dashboard that tracks where each state or territory is at in the process of the program.