The Office of Broadband Development held their weekly online office hour. There were 30 people online. Much of the information is the same week to week but I think attendees hear it differently depending on where they are in the application (or understanding) process. There are always a few updates and questions.
Session highlights:
- Reason codes are now called Non use codes (Why a location eligibility has been removed)
- First round of grant funding set to open March 24, 2025 and close April 21. This is for fiber projects only
- There is an application guide for grant on the OBD website now
Questions:
Do you plan to publish the application guide before opening the portal?
Yes
Are you going to announce who has applied for pre qualification?
Yes. We will post on the website for local governments will be able to see who might apply for funding in their area. Support from the local government is helpful to the applicant.
Do you know what the high cost threshold is set at? if not when will that be announced?
Doesn’t need to be set until the final round – so that’s when we’ll do it. For Round 3. We have some benchmarks but BEAD is different from Border to Border so we may see differences.
When do you think the list of approved pre-qualified ISPs will be published?
Depends on when we get info back from some applicants – hopefully Friday but maybe next week.
From the Chat
- Resources and portal access are available on the OBD BEAD webpage
- For technical questions, please email mnhelpdesk@ready.net.
- Please continue to submit BEAD FAQs through our online form, available here: https://forms.office.com/g/jE9EC1Zzpv
Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program / Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program
- Sign up for the March 25 session here
- New sessions open for registration: April 8, register here and April 15, register here
If you already signed up for March 25 office hours you are already signed up for the application session!