May 16 Announced as Starting Date for Submission of BIL Broadband Funding Requests

During a Brookings Institution webinar last week, Alan Davidson, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), announced that states can officially start submitting funding requests for their broadband expansion needs on May 16. The NTIA plans to release a funding opportunity that day, which will serve as “the starting gun…those notices will lay out how the programs will be built and how people can participate” according to Davidson. States will immediately be able to submit letters of intent for the digital equity program, the broadband equity access and deployment program (BEAD), and middle-mile broadband infrastructure program. NTIA encourages states to submit these letters so they can receive their $5 million in planning grants – as part of the BEAD program – as quickly as possible. This funding is part of the $48 billion allocated for broadband deployment grants in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.