Network builders, as much as they’d like to, can’t have everything they want when they want it. regulatory folks on overwatch to the local neighborhoods that have never had broadband.īut the uncertainties start to crop up once it is time to move from paper to moving dirt, stringing fiber, splicing strands, and ultimately turning up households. Lighting up households as quickly as possible is the goal and will ultimately be what keeps everyone on alert-from Washington D.C. Funding will be monitored closely with execution, meaning actual network build within the timeline, one of the metrics of success. Handing back grant money is not a win if you can’t get things built on time. Up to and including the clawback” of funds. Sure, there’s some fine print that allows NTIA to grant extensions, but there’s also ominous language on how NTIA may pursue “all available grant compliance and enforcement mechanisms…. Within five years, all the NTIA funding should be allocated and put to use, connecting the unconnected and upgrading underserved areas languishing with obsolete telecommunications hardware.įiber’s time has arrived, with a specific 5-Year Action Plan requirement in BEAD that States must design, submit for approval by NTIA and roll out to unserved and underserved locations. After months of waiting, the BEAD allocations to the states and territories have been made, and the clock has started.

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