Majority of BEAD money may not hit until 2026

• A panel at the upcoming Broadband Nation Expo will discuss when BEAD money will start flowing
• Realistically, most early states may not issue money to subgrantees until fall 2025
• The panel will also talk about important BEAD milestones still to be hit

When will the BEAD money start flowing? That is the billion-dollar question — pun intended. Most states have had their Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 processes approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), according to NTIA’s Progress Dashboard. Vol. 1 is focused on the mapping challenge process, and Vol. 2 consists of the remainder of the state’s BEAD implementation plan. Yet, the wait continues.

Jade Piros de Carvalho, VP of Broadband Advocacy and Partnerships with Bonfire, and a moderator of a panel at Fierce Network’s upcoming Broadband Nation Expo told Fierce Network, “I think what people want to hear about from state broadband directors is when the money is coming.” This will definitely be one of the topics on her panel next week where state broadband directors will discuss the status of their Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) programs.

One of difficulties with the program is getting an idea of the overall status. The NTIA dashboard “doesn’t tell you where states are with the hidden milestones,” she said, adding even though all Vol. 1s have been approved, some states are still waiting for their challenge results to be validated.

Some states — including Louisiana, Montana, West Virginia, Nevada and Colorado — are far ahead of others and are now working on their subgrantee processes as part of Vol 2, which they will submit to NTIA for approval.

Then, there will be an unknown approval time, maybe three months, said de Carvalho. Hopefully, while states are waiting for those approvals, they’ll be working in the background on helping companies line up workers to build the actual fiber networks.

Ultimately, all states will have to submit a final proposal, which will have to be posted for public comment for 30 days. She said a lot of things need to be done concurrently, rather than consecutively.

“We’re hoping there will be shovels in the ground by late spring in Louisiana,” said de Carvalho. But the other early states may not issue money to subgrantees until fall 2025. 

“I think the majority of this funding will hit the streets in 2026,” she said.

The fact that the goal posts seem to keep moving further away is disappointing to many who are anxious for BEAD to start awarding subgrantees. But NTIA says it is moving as fast as it can.

Alternative technologies

In late August, NTIA issued draft guidance related to alternative technologies, saying that states could use unlicensed wireless spectrum technologies and satellite broadband for BEAD projects.

But de Carvalho cautioned that there’s still a preference for fiber broadband. The new draft guidance just means that there’s a cascade of technologies that states can consider in order of preference. The first preference is for fiber broadband. But then in extremely high-cost locations they can consider hybrid fiber coax or licensed fixed wireless access. And then only after that if they have locations that didn’t get a bid, they can start considering satellite and unlicensed fixed wireless technology.

There’s been a bit of kerfuffle over whether low-Earth-orbit satellite should be qualified for BEAD funds. 

But de Carvalho said, “At the end of the day, it’s only going to be allowed in areas that just aren’t being bet on, kind of like a carrier-of-last-resort scenario.”

Also, NTIA has only issued draft guidance, and there could be some other modifications in the final guidance.

There are some states that didn’t put satellite and unlicensed in their Vol. 2s, which have been approved. Now, there’s a question how that will be resolved.

Non-deployment funds

Finally, the panel at Broadband Nation Expo may discuss non-deployment funds, which are surplus funds that some states will have left over after they’ve completed all their BEAD buildouts.

When Congress established the formula for how the $42.5 billion would be divvied up between all the states and territories, it seemed to give more to states that had higher populations of unserved people. Many of these states are in the South. Meanwhile, low-population states with large land masses, many in the Mid-West and West, seemed to get less funding.

Now, some states, mainly in the South, will have perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus funds.

“It’s estimated a dozen states will have a large surplus,” said De Carvalho. 

Those funds can be used for non-deployment purposes such as digital equity, affordability programs, workforce development and device assistance. But those states will need to develop a plan to spend their non-deployment funds.

In addition to discussing when people can expect the money to start flowing, De Carvalho said her panel might touch on topics such as whether or not states will have enough money to reach their goals, what the timeline is for each state and whether they’ll have to make some tough decisions on technology.

Fierce Network is gearing up for Broadband Nation Expo Oct. 9-11 in Washington, DC, where leaders in broadband will gather to talk about BEAD. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet with your industry peers. Be sure to register here!