The FCC’s new broadband funding maps will be improved to correct inaccuracies. That’s what NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson told the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee this week during a reauthorization hearing.
Davidson told lawmakers the new version of the maps will inform NTIA’s allocations to states participating in its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, according to MeriTalk. The BEAD program is a $42.45 billion fund to expand high-speed internet access in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
“The maps in the past that have been used have been poor,” Davidson told lawmakers. “We think that the map that the FCC is working on now is substantially improved, much more accurate, much more granular than we’ve ever had before.”
Davidson noted that the NTIA and the Commission have been in the middle of a “long challenge process” in which states could present challenges to the map and ask for updates, reports MeriTalk.
Davidson said NTIA is also ensuring states “do a lot of homework before we give them their final grants” for the BEAD program. For instance, he said states need to present an initial plan to NTIA that describes how they expect to spend their money. After making their grant awards, states will then need to present the NTIA with a final plan.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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