The FCC has released what the agency is calling the Broadband Funding Map. The map shows where funding has been awarded through programs administered by the agency, as well as through programs administered by USDA, Treasury, and NTIA.
The map would appear to be useful to individual states as the states plan for the $42.5 billion BEAD rural broadband deployment funding program. The states will be administering that program at the direction of NTIA.
As part of the process for determining areas eligible for funding, the states are required to remove locations that have funding commitments under another broadband deployment funding program.
Broadband Funding Map
As the FCC explains in a public notice, the Broadband Funding Map was created in response to a mandate included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The act directed the agency to establish an online mapping tool showing the overall geographic footprint of each broadband infrastructure deployment project funded by the federal government.
Specific programs plotted on the interactive map include the CAF II and RDOF programs from the FCC, the Broadband Infrastructure Program and Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program NOFO I from the NTIA, the Treasury Capital Projects Fund, and the USDA Rural Utilities Service Community Connect Grant Program, Rural Econnectivity Program and Telecommunications Loan Program.
It’s worth noting, though, that states will need more than just the new FCC funding map to meet BEAD requirements for determining areas that are ineligible because they have already received funding through another program. The reason is that the map doesn’t show state-level funding programs, and updates may not occur in a timely enough fashion to meet the BEAD requirements.
The FCC Broadband Funding Map is available at this link.
