Today the Office of Broadband Development talked to House Capital Investment Committee about IIJA. I have only very high level notes with the video and PPT slides and questions.

IIJA broadband funding includes BEAD and Digital Equity funds. OBD recognizes that the funding will not be enough to satisfy all funding priorities. They are working with local government and providers to fine tune the broadband maps so that funding will go to the right areas.

Questions:

Talk about unserved areas – are there commonalities?
Unserved locations are generally expensive to serve – remote, tough terrain and lower population density. There are three counties that are fully served.

Question on timeline – why does funding start in 2026?
Dictated by approval process with NTIA. Also, we need to have all of our grantees selected before granting funds. We can open the challenge process after Initial Proposal volume 1. That can take up to 100 days, with 30 days for rebuttal, followed by 60 days of corrections.

You’ve submitted your plan … are there still opportunities for the public to comment on the plan?
The door isn’t closed for comments. NTIA has already submitted some comments and we are working on getting waivers.

BEAD $651 million won’t meet the priorities – do you know how much of the priories will be met?
No. We are still working on State grants.