BROADBAND EQUITY, ACCESS, AND DEPLOYMENT PROGRAM

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

A. Federal Agency Name

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce

B. Funding Opportunity Title

Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program

C. Announcement Type

D. Funding Opportunity Number

Initial NTIA-BEAD-2022

11.035

E. Assistance Listing (CFDA Number) 

F. Key Dates

Completed Letters of Intent must be received by NTIA through the application portal no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on July 18, 2022. Upon submission of the Letter of Intent, the Point of Contact for each Eligible Entity may request Initial Planning Funds through the application portal. The portal will provide additional information about submission requirements for funding, including but not limited to standard forms and a budget narrative. All supplemental information must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on August 15, 2022.

Eligible Entities that receive Initial Planning Funds (see Section IV.B.2) must submit a Five- Year Action Plan to NTIA within 270 days of receipt of Initial Planning Funds, as described in Section IV.B.3 below.

Eligible Entities will be notified of future submission deadlines following the Federal Communications Commission’s (Commission’s) release of the maps required by the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technology Availability (DATA) Act, Pub. L. No. 116-130, 134 Stat. 228 (2020) (codified at 47 U.S.C. §§ 641-646) (Broadband DATA Maps). Initial Proposals may be submitted immediately upon issuance of the Notices of Available Amounts described in Section IV.B.4.b and will be due to NTIA no later than 180 days after such issuance. Final Proposals will be due to NTIA no later than 365 days after the approval of the Initial Proposal by the Assistant Secretary. See Section IV.B of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for additional timeline and program sequencing information.

G. Application Submission Address

Complete Letters of Intent, Requests for Initial Planning Funds, Five-Year Action Plans, Initial Proposals, and Final Proposals must be submitted electronically through NTIA’s online application portal, available at https://grants.ntia.gov/. Complete program materials or portions thereof submitted by postal mail, courier, email, facsimile, or other means will not be accepted. See Section V of this NOFO for detailed information concerning submission requirements.

H. Funding Opportunity Description

NTIA issues this NOFO to describe the requirements under which it will award grants for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program (Program), authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Division F, Title I, Section 60102, Public Law 117-58, 135 Stat. 429 (November 15, 2021) (Infrastructure Act or Act) also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The BEAD Program provides new federal funding for NTIA to grant to all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (States), as well as American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands (Territories), and in certain circumstances political subdivisions of these States and Territories, for broadband planning, deployment, mapping, equity, and adoption activities. Funding is distributed primarily based on the relative number of “unserved” locations (i.e., broadband-serviceable locations that lack access to Reliable Broadband Service at speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream and latency levels low enough to support real- time, interactive applications) in each State and Territory. Each State is eligible to receive a minimum of $100,000,000 and each Territory is eligible to receive a minimum of $25,000,000. See Section I of this NOFO for the full Program Description.

I. Funding Instrument

Grant.

J. Eligibility

Eligible Entities authorized to apply to NTIA for grants under the BEAD Program are the entities identified in Section 60102(a)(2)(F) of the Infrastructure Act—specifically, any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. See Section III of this NOFO for additional information concerning the BEAD Program’s eligibility requirements.

K. Anticipated Amounts

Each State is eligible to receive a minimum allocation of $100,000,000. Each State may request up to $5,000,000 of its minimum allocation in Initial Planning Funds. American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands each are eligible to receive a minimum allocation of $25,000,000. Each of those territories may request up to $1,250,000 of its minimum allocation in Initial Planning Funds. Not less than twenty percent of the total allocation for a State or Territory will be made available at the approval of the Initial Proposal with remaining funds released upon approval of the Final Proposal.

After the publication of broadband coverage maps being prepared by the Federal Communications Commission (Broadband DATA Maps), which will be used to determine the number of unserved locations in every State and Territory, NTIA will notify Eligible Entities of their total funding allocations, calculated in accordance with Sections 60102(c)(1) and (c)(3) of the Infrastructure Act, and inclusive of the minimum initial allocation and Initial Planning Funds.

See Section II of this NOFO for additional information pertaining to award amounts and to the period of performance for grants issued pursuant to this NOFO.

L. Cost Sharing/Matching

Except in certain specific circumstances described herein (including projects in designated “high-cost areas,” as defined in Section 60102(a)(2)(G), and other cases in which NTIA has waived the matching requirement pursuant to Section 60102(h)(3)(A)(ii)), for each broadband deployment project utilizing BEAD grant funding, each Eligible Entity shall provide, require its subgrantee to provide, or provide in concert with its subgrantee, matching funds of not less than 25 percent of project costs. Funds from federal programs, including funds from the Commission’s Universal Service Fund programs, generally may not be used as matching funds; however, the Infrastructure Act expressly provides that matching funds for the BEAD Program may come from a federal regional commission or authority and from funds that were provided to an Eligible Entity or a subgrantee for the purpose of deploying broadband service under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Public Law 116-127; 134 Stat. 178); the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136; 134 Stat. 281), the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260; 134 Stat. 1182); or the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2; 135 Stat. 4), to the extent permitted by those laws. See Section III.B of this NOFO for more information pertaining to the cost sharing requirements for this Program.