The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration on June 26 announced how it has allocated $42.45 billion of funding to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories to deploy high-speed Internet service to everyone in America.
States, D.C., and territories will use the funding from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to administer grant programs within their borders.
Awards range from $27 million to over $3.3 billion, with every state receiving a minimum of $107 million. A total of 19 states received allocations over $1 billion with the top 10 allocations in Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The funding will be used to deploy or upgrade broadband networks. Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funding can be used to pursue eligible access-, adoption-, and equity-related uses.
States, D.C., and territories will receive their formal notice of allocation on June 30, 2023.
Under the infrastructure law, eligible entities have 180 days from the date of that formal notice to submit their Initial proposals describing how they propose to run their grant programs.
Eligible entities can begin submitting their initial proposals starting July 1, 2023.
Once NTIA approves an initial proposal, which will occur on a rolling basis, eligible entities will be permitted to request access to at least 20 percent of their allocated funds.
Details related to the BEAD allocation for the states, D.C., and territories, as well as the total Federal investment in high-speed internet in each State and Territory are available here.
