Management Alert: Challenges Industry Stakeholders Face with Broadband Deployment

We issued this management alert to notify the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of potential risks identified during an ongoing evaluation that could affect NTIA’s broadband programs, primarily the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Specifically, we asked industry stakeholders to identify challenges they are facing with broadband programmatic deployment to unserved and underserved locations. Stakeholders indicated that their top challenges include requirements and exclusions in applicable program provisions that prefer fiber over non-fiber technologies, lengthy permitting processes, and workforce shortages. These challenges could delay broadband deployment, decrease competition for grants, encourage overbuilding and wasteful spending in locations with existing broadband access, and increase deployment costs. We provided three proposed actions for NTIA to consider to address the potential impacts of the identified challenges.