News
Washington D.C. has had their funding for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program denied by the NTIA.
By Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
Arielle Roth, the administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, has denied BEAD deployment funding to Washington D.C., according to published reports.
The denial was explained by Roth in a recent op-ed published in the subscription-only Washington Post.
In her op-ed, Roth said the nation’s capital had a proposal that contained “red flags,” according to Telecompetitor.
Originally, Roth said Washington D.C. had a BEAD proposal that proposed to spend $70,000 per location, the publication explained.
However, after being asked to submit a revised proposal, Roth said the district’s new BEAD proposal came in at approximately $6,000 per location, Telecompetitor reported.
“How does a $70,000 bid drop to $6,000 with no material changes? Did these locations require federal funding at all?” Roth was quoted as writing.
According to Connected Nation, BEAD’s average state cost per each serviceable location is currently $5,786.
Roth’s op-ed also alleged that the district has “a history of questionable broadband mapping.”
She cited concerns raised in the Senate Commerce Committee’s 2023 Red Light Report, Telecompetitor reported.
Initially, Washington D.C. was granted over $100 million in BEAD funds by Congress’s passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The news, which stands in sharp contrast to recent headlines from Louisiana, makes Washington D.C. the only eligible BEAD entity thus far to be outright denied by NTIA.
