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Louisiana became the first state to secure final approval of its BEAD plan from the NTIA this week. The state's broadband director expects construction to begin in a matter of months.
The state of Louisiana on Monday (January 13) became the first in the nation to have its final proposal for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program approved by the NTIA. The approval officially gives Louisiana the green light to sign agreements with selected service providers and get to work.
That work to bridge the state's remaining broadband gaps may start in a matter of months: "based on conversations with internet service providers, we fully expect to see shovels in the ground in the next 100 days," said Veneeth Iyengar, executive director for ConnectLA, the state's broadband office, in a press release.
Louisiana's final proposal for BEAD was released for public comment and NTIA approval in November 2024. In that plan, the state spelled out how it will allocate roughly $748 million in infrastructure funding – with over 95% of funding going to fiber projects – and more than $500 million in non-deployment funds for "initiatives targeting education, workforce development, healthcare, agriculture, and economic development," according to ConnectLA.
Service providers selected to fulfill Louisiana's broadband builds through BEAD include a fiber consortium led by T-Mobile; as well as AT&T, Conexon and more. (See a full list here: Louisiana to award 95% of BEAD funds for fiber.) All told, the projects are expected to reach 140,030 locations by the end of 2030.
Louisiana is so far the first and only state to get NTIA's go-ahead on its final BEAD proposal. Two other states – Delaware and Nevada – have also named BEAD subgrantees and submitted final proposals for NTIA approval, while nearly half of all states have begun the subgrantee/ISP selection process, according to an NTIA dashboard. [Update: The NTIA approved Delaware's final BEAD proposal on January 14, shortly after this story's publication.]
"Louisiana has an outstanding plan to close the digital divide. Today it can put that plan into action and start building the networks that will connect everyone in the state," said Alan Davidson, NTIA administrator, in a statement.
How BEAD proceeds
Notably, Davidson plans to resign from his position at NTIA on Monday, January 20, as Donald Trump takes office as the 47th president. What comes of the BEAD program under the Trump/Musk administration remains to be seen, though NTIA leaders – including BEAD program director Evan Feinman, who reportedly intends to retain his role – continue to project optimism.
One reason for that optimism is that BEAD's statutory provisions are written into the law passed by Congress. While some Republican senators like Ted Cruz have indicated a desire to overhaul BEAD, and halt digital equity funding, it's unclear if there's broad support within Congress to rewrite the program's rules.
But BEAD stakeholders may want to make their support for the program known with those lawmakers.
"I think this is now a good time to spend educating members of Congress on the importance of the BEAD program to you as a stakeholder," said Sarah Morris, principal deputy assistant secretary at NTIA, on a recent webinar hosted by the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB) and Calix. (Calix is one of several companies that has self-certified its products as compliant with BEAD's domestic manufacturing requirements.)
"I think for Internet service providers, we have a growing number of states where ISPs have already been selected as subgrantees. And in those instances, those stakeholders have millions of reasons to be invested in the continued existence and momentum with the BEAD program," added Morris.
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