Who Qualifies for BEAD Funding?

A Guide to Eligibility and Requirements

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program was established to offer broadband expansion grants to states across America, helping them expand high-speed internet access to their populations. This funding is critical because it helps bridge the digital divide by financing broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas.

Approximately $42.45 billion has been allocated to the BEAD Program, providing significant capital for broadband expansion. However, states, local governments, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other potential applicants need to understand the eligibility requirements for receiving these allocated BEAD funds. What’s more, these organizations must identify potential bottlenecks to their BEAD applications and address them before starting the application process to prevent unforeseen delays.

Understanding BEAD Program Eligibility

The BEAD Program is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which advises the President on policy surrounding information, telecommunications, and other tech-related matters. The NTIA was established to improve connectivity by supporting universal high-speed internet access and ensuring the internet drives innovation and economic growth.

Applicants eligible for BEAD funding include:

• All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico
• U.S. territories, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Currently, all 56 eligible entities that submitted an initial proposal to the NTIA have received funding approval. However, only 26 entities have started selecting service providers to implement the broadband expansion, and only three states—Delaware, Louisiana, and Nevada—have distributed any of their allocated funds to service providers.

The BEAD Program funds partnerships between eligible entities, communities, and stakeholders (such as ISPs and other broadband providers). These funds can be used to plan high-speed internet deployment via data collection, research surveys, and training. They can also support internet deployment in unserved or underserved regions, as well as workforce development to ensure workers are fully trained to deploy internet services in these regions.

NTIA broadband funding is allocated as follows:

• $100 million baseline funding for each state and $25 million for each territory
• The ratio of unserved locations in each state to the nationwide total of unserved locations
• The ratio of “high-cost” unserved locations to the nationwide total of “high-cost” unserved locations

Here, “high cost” refers to the cost of deploying broadband internet, based on factors unique to each region, including:

• Remoteness
• Population density
• Topography
• Poverty levels

Who Can Apply for BEAD Funding?

The list of entities eligible to receive funding includes:

• State broadband offices and local governments
• Internet service providers (ISPs) and public-private partnerships
• Nonprofits, cooperatives, and tribal organizations involved in broadband deployment

The criteria for BEAD funds eligibility include:

• Certification of prioritized projects or proposals to provide affordable internet service to end users, with actionable deployment plans
• Proof that underserved service projects prioritize fiber services and other criteria for broadband expansion
• Designation of another entity within the state or territorial government to administer the BEAD Program

Eligible entities for BEAD funding receive allocated funds based on boundaries determined by the Federal Communication Commission (FC) Broadband DATA Maps. Allocations are the total of:

• Minimum Initial Allocation – The BEAD Program designates $100 million for each state in the U.S. the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and $25 million for American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

• High-Cost Allocation – The “High-Cost Allocation” reflects the number of unserved locations in high-cost areas divided by the total number of unserved regions in high-cost areas throughout the U.S., multiplied by the entire $4.245 billion BEAD funding.

• Remaining Funds Allocation – These are the leftover funds after subtracting the Minimum Initial Allocations and total High-Cost Allocations from $41.6 billion. The Remaining Funds Allocation for each entity is calculated by multiplying the ratio of the number of unserved locations within an eligible entity’s region to the total number of unserved regions across the U.S. by the Remaining Funds.

Although BEAD funding is allocated to recipients (states), these entities can designate subgrantees, such as local organizations, ISPs, and cooperatives, to handle broadband deployment. The BEAD Program requires states to select subgrantees via fair, open, and competitive processes, ensuring the appropriate providers deliver internet service to unserved and underserved regions.

Requirements for Receiving BEAD Funding

The BEAD program speed requirements for unserved and underserved broadband areas include:

• Service requirements – For underserved locations, BEAD-funded projects must deliver minimum broadband speeds of at least 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads. These speeds must be at least 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads in unserved regions.

• Unserved vs. underserved areas – The BEAD Program prioritizes projects catering to unserved regions, which currently have no access to 25/3 Mbps speeds, especially those that provide fiber connectivity.

• Affordability and digital equity – Applicants must demonstrate plans to offer affordable broadband options and adhere to digital equity goals, which may include providing equipping communities with digital skills, providing them with technical support, or helping them navigate the use of digital devices.

• Regulatory and compliance standards – Recipients must comply with federal and state regulations, including workforce development and environmental impact assessments.

How to Apply for BEAD Funding

The BEAD funding application process involves multiple stages:

• State Planning and Proposal Submission – Each state submits proposals outlining broadband deployment strategies and a Letter of Intent to participate in the BEAD Program.
• Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Review – The NTIA reviews and approves proposals before states receive funds. Here, states and territories can request Initial Planning Funds, which vary based on whether an entity is a state or territory.
• Subgrantee Application Process – Local ISPs, cooperatives, and municipalities apply for funding through their state broadband offices. States undergo a challenge to determine whether they are eligible to receive funds for specified projects.
• Implementation and Reporting – Recipients must provide regular updates on project progress and compliance. The Final Proposal for funding submitted by each state must demonstrate compliance with the Initial Proposal requirements.

Within 180 days of receiving a Notice of Available Amounts, states can submit an Initial Proposal to describe key processes like subgrantee selection. Upon receiving approval of their Initial Proposals, states may receive their remaining funds within 12 months. However, this timeline isn’t always accurate because of delays in processing funds for disbursement.

Challenges and Delays in BEAD Fund Distribution

Although every state has made progress in submitting proposals for BEAD funding, approvals have been delayed. Funds from state-level grant programs are rolled out slowly, adding bottlenecks to broadband deployment in underserved and unserved regions. Additionally, regulatory challenges related to state compliance issues and NTIA oversight hurdles contribute to BEAD funding delays.

Unfortunately, these delays affect rural broadband expansion and increase costs for ISPs to deploy the appropriate infrastructure for reliable high-speed internet. States are already well-positioned for speedy implementation of their proposed broadband deployment activities, especially after collecting data from their local communities and selecting subgrantees who can successfully implement BEAD five-year action plans.

Preparing for BEAD Funding Opportunities

All eligible entities and subgrantees that have applied or are currently applying for some level of BEAD funding need to stay updated on state-level BEAD announcements and application deadlines. As federal funding remains uncertain, acting quickly on these updates can speed up broadband deployment and enable ISPs to participate in these long-term expansion projects.

For those organizations preparing to apply for BEAD funding, it might be useful to form partnerships and secure the necessary documentation for these applications. The BEAD Program comprises multiple compliance requirements that must be met before organizations proceed to the next cycle in their application process.

States also need to ensure that their BEAD subprograms meet the connectivity needs outlined in their proposals. This means implementing the right amount of oversight to achieve the completion of complex requirements, such as digital equity.

In the long term, BEAD funding will help improve broadband accessibility and digital equity across the U.S. As the world becomes increasingly digital, there’s a pressing need to reduce the divide between communities that can easily access high-speed internet and those that cannot. That’s where states can step in to partner with organizations like ISPs to deploy broadband to unserved and underserved regions.

Organizations looking to stay ahead of BEAD updates can rely on IPv4.Global as a trusted source of information. IPv4.Global’s team of experts has successfully handled the sale of millions of IPv4 addresses and has significant experience managing processes like IP address transfers.