The Office of Broadband Development announce…

We are pleased to announce the public comment period is now open for the State’s Draft Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, Initial Proposal (Volumes I and II) for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

To learn more about the federal BEAD program, and to read the draft Initial Proposal and to make public comment, visit DEED’s website on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Public Comments can also be mailed to:

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
Office of Broadband Development
180 E 5^th Street, Suite 1200
St. Paul, MN 55101

For consideration, all comments must be received by 4:00 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, December 12, 2023.

Unfortunately, I am in a meeting today but hope to comb through this in my hotel tonight but here are the links of the various documents…

The next step in the process to obtain BEAD funds are that Initial Proposals are due no later than 180 days following official notification of the state allocations, which is December 27, 2023. States must make their Initial Proposals available for public comment prior to submission.

• Minnesota’s Draft Initial Proposal, Volume 1
  • Deduplication of Funding Programs
  • Existing Broadband Funding Sources
  • MN CAI List
• Minnesota’s Draft Initial Proposal, Volume 2
  • BEAD IP Scoring Rubric
  • BEAD Meeting Tracker