This may be applicable to some readers, but I thought it might be interesting for those of us who don’t work for a broadband provider. Ready has come up with seven steps to prepare for the next BEAD challenge process. BEAD being the big federal funding program that has shifted gears several times in the last two years.
There have been many articles about what those changes have made to the state offices of broadband development, and we’ve heard from Minnesota Office of Broadband Development about the process multiple times. Today, a glimpse at the provider point of view…
NTIA’s Supplemental Deployment Policy Notice requires every Eligible Entity to run an additional BEAD challenge and application round to reach remaining unserved locations. The remaining unserved locations resulted from defaults in federal or state broadband funding programs, such as RDOF, locations misreported as served in previous versions of the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program, unfulfilled planned service challenges, and locations new to the Fabric.
And the steps
1. Build your preliminary list now
2. Inventory your state and local enforceable commitments
3. Set your evidence standard before the challenge window opens
4. Set up your challenge and adjudication process now
5. Confirm your budget and procurement path early
6. Prepare for the second Benefit of the Bargain round now
7. Run BEAD 1.2 alongside your existing BEAD work
