June 12, 2025
At a time when up to 22 million Americans live without high-speed internet, the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program could expand internet access to those unserved or underserved by current technologies.
But BEAD, which was passed under the Biden administration as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs (IIJ) Act of 2021, has been met with delays and changes — including in early June, when the Trump administration announced several updates to the program like moving away from a fiber preference and removing mandates related to employment, labor, and climate change.
Now, planners are tasked with finding ways to not only implement local policies amidst changing guidance but also to find opportunities for funding.
Possible funding challenges ahead
The federal government has long funded broadband access through programs run by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Treasury Department, Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other agencies, with some focusing on rural areas, tribes, and underserved communities. The Tribal Broadband and Connectivity Program, for example, has already awarded $1.78 billion to nearly 200 tribal communities.
BEAD represents the largest infusion of funding ever, giving wide latitude to the states and territories in how to disburse funds to cities, towns, and tribes, and which technologies to use. As of November 2024, broadband plans had been approved by all 50 states, D.C., and the five U.S. territories. Many have already opened application processes for internet service providers (ISPs), municipalities, and community organizations to request funding for local projects. Funds can cover the costs of construction, technology, labor, workforce development programs, and digital equity programs. Each state and territory will be on a different timeline for construction and achieving their submitted five-year goals.
Bootcamps hosted by Tribal nations, including one in Aguanga, California, help community members learn about broadband technology and make inroads for funding opportunities through resources like the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. Photo by AP Photo/Jae C. Hong.
BEAD was intended by Congress to be a 10-year program that could withstand turnover of administrations; but on his first day in office in January 2025, President Donald J. Trump paused all grant funding related to the IIJ Act through an executive order. Two days later, his administration clarified that the pause only applied to energy-related projects. Trump's freeze on federal spending was later rescinded after a federal judge blocked the action.
Both Trump and his allies have been critical of the program's delay in getting off the ground; its requirement that states write equity-focused policies, particularly for internet affordability; and its preference for end-to-end fiber. Before he was re-elected, Trump signaled his preference for low-Earth orbit satellite internet, potentially using Elon Musk's Starlink system.
In March, new U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said his department would conduct a "rigorous review" of BEAD. On June 6, the administration unveiled sweeping changes to the program in a notice sent out by NTIA. This includes making BEAD a technology-neutral program to "bring the full force of the competitive marketplace to bear and allow American taxpayers to obtain the greatest return on their investment," stated the NTIA news release announcing the changes.
The new guidance also requires states to conduct at least one more BEAD subgrantee selection round. Dubbed the "Benefit of the Bargain Round," state BEAD programs "must permit all applicants – regardless of technology employed or prior participation in the program – to compete on a level playing field undistorted by the non-statutory regulatory burdens eliminated," according to the policy notice, and they "must rescind all preliminary and provisional subaward selections and notify applicants that a further round of applications will be considered before final awards are made." State programs will have 90 days to comply before submitting their final proposals.
Prior to these changes being announced, more than 100 lawmakers in 28 states sent a letter to Lutnick in April urging him to make any changes to the BEAD program optional instead of mandatory. "One in four rural residents do not have access to broadband. But they are about to," the state legislators wrote. "State BEAD and [other] programs have been designed by and for state stakeholders, and they are poised to bring high-speed, reliable, affordable, and scalable broadband to virtually every last one of our constituents. Please respect the results of this process. At this late stage, major changes would undermine our work and delay deployment by years."
This map shows the areas of Michigan that can apply for the state's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding, with darker purple shades equating to more of the area being eligible for funding. Map courtesy of Michigan High Speed Internet Office.
Starlink satellites, the Elon Musk-founded SpaceX technology once hailed by the Trump administration as an alternative to BEAD's preference for fiber-optic cables, operate in low Earth orbit that allows for nationwide high-speed data options. Image courtesy of Starlink.
Broadband internet remains an urgent issue once the pandemic moved everyday things online, such as government services, medical appointments, schools, and workplaces. "Prior to the pandemic, having access to high-speed internet was seen as a luxury by many," says Daniel Holbrook, AICP, broadband manager for Business Oregon. "[But] when everyone was staying home and trying to redo their lives virtually, those who had it were able to do that, and those who weren't were separated."
Building across all terrains
The projects funded by BEAD will be expensive, because they're tackling the most remote reaches of the U.S. "If I'm going to build [for internet access] down a road with 10 houses on it, I can probably make [an ISP's] business case for doing that," says Eric Frederick, a planner and the chief connectivity officer of the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office. "If there's only two houses on that mile-long road, that makes it a lot more challenging. The number of locations is probably one of the biggest challenges, which is why the government stepped in to fund this infrastructure."
Frederick, who leads broadband policy in Michigan, notes a major construction challenge is the state's lakes and rivers. "We're a two-peninsula state, with only so many ways to get from one to the other that don't involve going through another state or three," he says.
Likewise, Holbrook says, "In Oregon, we have some parts that have great soil that make it very affordable to go underground, and then we have other parts that are just solid basalt — volcanic rock — which is very expensive."
Planners will have to work with ISPs to figure out which technologies will work best for each given area. Existing infrastructure must be considered, which might incur "make-ready" costs. For example, Brandy Reitter, executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office, says many communities in Colorado form electrical co-ops, using utility poles that could accommodate fiber, but because the poles were installed 40 to 50 years ago, they need to be repaired or brought up to code. Some need replacement at $9,000 per pole.
It's also expensive to hire skilled laborers to string fiber on those poles or bury conduit. It is likely that every state is going to experience issues around the workforce and supply chain. To mitigate these challenges, Frederick and other experts recommend that planners act as facilitators between ISPs and the various commissions that control roads, drains, and utility poles so communication is more streamlined.
Places like Palisade, Colorado, may be competing with areas all over the country for workers to install fiber lines or other technologies, making it important for planners and the agencies overseeing these projects to act as facilitators to keep things on schedule and streamlined. Photo courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation.
Reitter also suggests that planners implement or abide by dig-once policies, which encourage public works departments to install small, empty pipes for internet usage during already-planned construction projects for streets, sidewalks, and sewers. This way, fiber optic cables can be easily slotted in without incurring another expensive excavation project, thus reducing future costs and headaches.
Meanwhile, planners also need to know where broadband already exists. Since 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has tracked internet service through its National Broadband Map, which remains "the source of truth for every broadband program across the country," says Reitter.
Experts tell Planning that the FCC map, which released its latest iteration in 2022, has improved by leaps and bounds — previously, the FCC measured coverage using census blocks, which had major accuracy issues. However, there are still inaccuracies inherent to the map's data source, says Reitter.
The data remains self-reported by ISPs, which, some advocates charge, are motivated to misrepresent coverage to avoid providing service in areas that might be expensive or unprofitable to connect to the network. Reitter says that about 30 percent of the time, the map overstates broadband coverage. "We always have to verify. The new map is a huge improvement over where the FCC was, [but] we leverage it as a tool among many tools."
Many states supplement the national map with data provided by municipalities or collected by their broadband offices. Frederick says a contractor's group of engineers drove 65,000 miles of road in Michigan to verify which areas had visible broadband infrastructure, such as fiber pedestals and telephone poles. He says coverage was most overstated on "the edges of small towns and suburban areas, where household density drops off."
Making the internet accessible to all
Despite the progress that has previously been made, the recent changes to BEAD have left state broadband offices scrambling to determine their next steps. In Colorado, Reitter stated in March that nearly 100 applications were received for a second round of BEAD funding. In May, Holbrook told Planning that 52 entities in Oregon were prequalified to apply for BEAD funding, and the program had moved into its scoring phase. But reached after the June changes, Holbrook says his office was analyzing the new guidance.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Frederick told Planning in May that the state had finished its first round of BEAD applications. His office was in the middle of reviewing, scoring, and deconflicting the proposals after receiving nearly 400 applications from 32 ISPs for projects that could serve more than 194,000 homes, businesses, and institutions with end-to-end fiber technology.
"Major policy shifts in the BEAD program will absolutely slow the program down, and the unserved and underserved rural areas of the nation will continue to be left behind," Frederick said at the time. "We should be leveraging this once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in technology that doesn't just solve our connectivity challenges for today or tomorrow, but for 30–40 years from now."
In his estimation, only fiber accomplishes that goal. "If we don't do this, 10 years from now, we'll be in the same place we are today with the already connected places of our nation thriving and our rural communities struggling to stay connected to the 21st century," he says.
Reached again after the changes were announced, Frederick tells Planning that the policy changes will affect every state significantly, with every program needing to rerun their subgrantee selection process with the scoring criteria for applications now being tied to cost. While his team is determining how to best implement these updates into their program, he says "the new guidance undoes the last three years' worth of work that states put into designing and implementing their programs."
Older residents share how high-speed internet and digital equity programs benefit their lives in the Colorado Broadband Stories series.
The infrastructure is just one piece of the puzzle, though. "In order to have a healthy broadband ecosystem, you need to not only have the infrastructure available, but it also needs to be affordable to households," says Danny Fuchs, who leads the digital opportunity practice at HR&A Advisors. "Affordability is the single greatest barrier to universal adoption."
Fuchs also suggests that planners think beyond the infrastructure. "It's really important that as planners develop their community plans, they understand the barriers to economic opportunity as a result of a lack of broadband access, so that they can plan for the benefits of that connectivity once BEAD — or another investment program — delivers that new broadband infrastructure," he says.
NTIA administers grants for digital equity, which funds programs to assist low-income households, aging populations, incarcerated people, veterans, people with disabilities, people with language barriers, racial and ethnic minorities, and residents of rural areas. These projects can teach people how to make telehealth appointments, establish computer labs with free internet access, and create digital literacy programs for K–12 students. Even those grants, though, may face challenges now that the president declared the program "unconstitutional" on social media and threatened to cut funding for it.
Frederick says this is a major area where planners can be helpful, using their stakeholder engagement experience to bring organizations together. "The infrastructure is the part that gets all the attention — it's the biggest pot of money — but the digital equity piece is absolutely critical," he says. "We can argue about fiber versus satellite, or this speed and that speed, until we are blue in the face, but at the end of the day, it's the person that we're connecting that is using the internet to improve their life, whether it's for education or health care or simply watching Netflix. You're enabled and empowered to go do this now, because you have this connection."
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