Most states (45 as of Friday) have released their recommended awards in the Benefit of the Bargain round in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The total value of the award recommendations for those states is less than half of initial allocations, according to a Telecompetitor analysis.
The initial allocation for the 45 states was about $32.8 billion. The total value of the award recommendations for the states is about $15.2 billion, or about 46% of the initial allocation.
Here is the allocation versus award by state:
Minnesota places well above average at 57.8 percent (versus US wide percentage of 46 percent) and ranks 12 in terms of percentage retained. But that could continue to change…
It’s important to keep in mind that the states’ recommendations for BEAD awards are not final. The recommendations still must be approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is rumored to be seeking reductions to the award amounts.