On April 22, 2025, the NTIA issued a Notice of Programmatic Waiver (Waiver Notice) providing a 90-day extension of the Final Proposal deadline in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The issuance of the Waiver Notice signals that the Department of Commerce is pressing forward with its review of the BEAD program. The Waiver Notice also provides additional clues about the nature of the changes that the Department is contemplating for the BEAD program.
- The Commerce Department continues to focus its review on ways to speed deployment and introduce a greater technology mix into the BEAD program.
- A careful reading of the Waiver Notice suggests that changes under consideration will not constitute a complete overhaul of the program, and may not even directly conflict with the BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
- Stakeholders will need to quickly react to any new changes in many states. Even with a 90-day extension, a dozen states are facing Final Proposal deadlines in September or earlier.
Stakeholders of all kinds—prospective deployment subgrantees, non-deployment subgrantees, equipment manufacturers and others—will likely adjust their approach when and if changes are announced.