Funding For Broadband Infrastructure Projects: What's Next

Broadband maps and the promise of a boom in broadband infrastructure projects remain a focus of federal, state, and local leaders. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published an updated version of the National Broadband Map, which identifies all locations in the United States where broadband service is or could be available and what broadband service, if any, is available in each of these locations.

What does this mean? The National Broadband Map is the foundation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA). Congress allocated more than $42 billion to the BEAD Program with the mandate to deploy broadband service to all unserved and underserved locations in the US. Because the IIJA directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to allocate funds based on the National Broadband Map, the FCC's findings will shape how much