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A total of 20 states and territories have been granted extensions to submit their final BEAD proposals, NTIA has announced.
By Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
A September 4 deadline for states and territories to submit their revised final Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program proposals has passed.
In total, 56 states and territories are eligible for $42.45 billion in BEAD funds.
According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), 36 eligible entities have met Thursday’s deadline.
“NTIA has committed to completing its review of the Final Proposals within 90 days of submission,” NTIA’s Friday announcement stated. “The remaining 20 eligible entities have been granted short-term extensions and will be submitting their Final Proposals in the coming weeks.”
With the announcement, NTIA also shared a dashboard to track the progress of individual states and territories.
A full list of states and territories granted short-term extensions included Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina.
South Dakota, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Utah were also among the states and territories marked as not yet having submitted their revised final BEAD proposal to NTIA.
‘After years of delay’
Also included in today’s announcement were comments from NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth.
“After years of delay, the Trump Administration has made monumental progress in moving the BEAD program forward,” Roth said. “We appreciate the hard work of the 36 states that have submitted their Final Proposals, and we are eager to review these plans so that we can deliver on Secretary Lutnick’s goal of approving deployment projects by the end of the year and immediately begin connecting Americans across the country.”
The September 4 deadline was associated with NTIA’s restructuring notice, sent out in June.
The notice gave all 56 states and territories eligible for BEAD funds until Thursday to comply with the notice.
“In the plans submitted today, states are already projecting savings of at least $13 billion for American taxpayers – driven by a rise in participation by the private sector, increased matching commitments by subgrantees, and a surge of innovative technology solutions to deliver high-speed connectivity,” NTIA’s Sept. 5 release stated.
