The NTIA’s long-awaited guidance on how states can spend leftover BEAD funding is finally here, kind of, or maybe not. It turns out that the leftover billions in what the NTIA calls “savings” – and what the law calls “non-deployment funds” – will be made available for deployment.
In a ten-page memo released on Thursday (September 3), the NTIA spelled out a process whereby states and territories will use leftover BEAD funds to re-run another round of BEAD bids. After forcing states to re-do their BEAD bidding last year in pursuit of “the benefit of the bargain,” the NTIA declared program “savings” of $21 billion. Those savings are what’s technically known as “non-deployment” funds, and states have been awaiting guidance from NTIA on how that funding can be used.
The agency had said it would release guidance on the use of non-deployment funds before the end of summer … this isn’t exactly that, but it’s now somewhat unclear if and when the NTIA intends to release guidance on funding for non-deployment purposes.
Nonetheless, according to Thursday’s memo, the NTIA has decided to allow states and territories (“eligible entities” in BEAD lingo) to “access additional BEAD funding to address locations that may remain unserved due to defaults in other federal and/or state programs, misreporting by providers, and other changes to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) broadband DATA maps since the completion of Final Proposals.” The NTIA did not say how much of the remaining $21 billion exactly will be used in this new deployment round.
The decision comes after the NTIA held listening sessions with stakeholders. “More than 1,700 attendees and 175 speakers participated in three NTIA listening sessions and NTIA received more than 200 written comments from industry, state officials, and broadband advocates. One consistent theme throughout these comments was the importance of addressing additional locations that remain unserved due to defaults in other programs or changes that have occurred since Eligible Entities submitted their Final Proposals,” states the memo.
As such, the NTIA said it is now sending each state and territory a list of unserved locations not included in that entity’s final proposal, after which states and territories must review and publish their lists and host a challenge process on the eligible locations. From there, states and territories have another 90 days to re-run a round of BEAD bidding, giving NTIA another 90 days to approve final proposals and funding amounts once again.
“The Assistant Secretary reserves the right to reject any project proposal that lacks sufficient detail, fails to meet the requirements specified in this Policy Notice, or imposes unreasonable costs on the program. Plans to serve the locations identified on the Supplemental BEAD Eligible Location list will be scrutinized for excessive deployment costs based on the cost characteristics of the area to be served. No additional uses of funds outside of those permitted in this Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice will be authorized at this time,” states the memo.
So much for ‘non-deployment’?
The idea of using some BEAD non-deployment funding for, um, deployment has indeed been floated by others in the industry. With providers backing out of their BEAD commitments before they could sign their agreements – and with defaults still occurring in prior federal funding programs, leaving those locations unserved – it was expected that some states would need to re-run some BEAD bidding processes.
But other states and stakeholders have also sought to use the leftover funding for other purposes related to getting people connected, and states in general have stressed that they hope to be the ultimate deciders of how best to use their remaining funds.
The NTIA’s memo suggests that there may still be funding for actual non-deployment purposes later on, but those purposes are still to be determined.
“While NTIA will continue considering other uses for the Benefit of the Bargain Savings, the vast majority of Eligible Entities are still working to finalize subgrantee agreements and this step will ensure that Eligible Entities maintain focus on the statutory goal of ensuring universal broadband availability. Other uses of BEAD funding will be addressed in subsequent guidance,” states the NTIA in its memo.
In a post on LinkedIn, Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), expressed confusion around this memo and what it means for the actual use of “non-deployment” funding as required by law, and when the NTIA will fulfill its promise to release such guidance:
“Broadband friends, make this make sense. After proudly cutting back on BEAD-eligible locations in its ‘Benefit of the Bargain’ and ‘Best and Final’ bidding rounds, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has now decided that part of the money it allegedly ‘saved’ will go back to deploy broadband in the places that it nixed previously. I’m not necessarily against that, but what torques me is that it *still* hasn’t announced the guidance for the ‘non-deployment’ money, which is 1) required by law and 2) is intended to assist with the networks that are now in the process of being deployed,” writes Sohn. “NTIA Administrator Roth promised a Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce that she would issue non-deployment guidance this summer. This partial guidance should not serve as a promise kept. The last day of summer is September 22. Tick Tock.”
