The National Telecommunications and Information Administration finally released a plan for the remaining $21 billion in leftover BEAD funds not designated by participants for broadband deployment.
Impact: Now that all 56 BEAD-eligible entities (50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia) have won approval for their final proposals from NTIA, the agency has revealed what it plans to do with the approximately $21 billion in BEAD funds not specifically directed toward broadband deployments. In a surprising turn of events, a Supplementary Notice unveiled before the Labor Day holiday weekend — and just in time to meet NTIA’s goal of releasing its guidance “before the end of the summer” — allows states and territories to conduct a new round of funding for additional broadband deployments. That means a portion of the savings each BEAD-eligible entity made during the Benefit of the Bargain round now can be put toward deployments. The NTIA edict covers newly identified unserved locations not previously included in the FCC nationwide broadband map or locations that have become eligible for BEAD through provider defaults or changes to other federal (think RDOF) and state broadband funding programs. According to NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth, the $21 billion the program “saved” thanks to changes made by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick can now be used to target locations still lacking in service. “Through this targeted use of funding, we are ensuring that we close the digital divide once and for all while also protecting taxpayer dollars.”
The NTIA decision to allocate some of the non-deployment funds toward deployments came after the agency solicited public comment and held meetings with interested parties about how best to use the remaining $21 billion in funds. The agency consistently heard from the public and others that there numerous unserved and underserved locations had been missed in the Benefit of the Bargain round as state broadband offices tried to rein in costs and meet NTIA’s affordability requirements and still needed access funding to be connected. Several Republican senators and the Fiber Broadband Association applauded NTIA’s plan for a “cleanup round,” stating that it will ensure that addresses still lacking broadband connectivity get connected now that the remaining BEAD funds can be used to cover those locations. In Alaska, where Roth made the NTIA announcement, that means another 5,000 locations will be covered by BEAD. It’s safe to say that state broadband offices will be relieved to have access to more funds they can put toward additional deployments that will enable them to get closer to the original goal of the BEAD program: universal broadband coverage.
The Trump Administration paused the $42.5 billion program shortly after taking office in early 2025 and then released its modifications in June 2025, the biggest of which involved requiring another round of bidding to ensure that state broadband offices chose the best low-cost option for each BEAD award using a technology-neutral criteria that didn’t favor fiber over other broadband technologies. In fact, the rules appeared to be designed to give satellite operators like SpaceX a much larger piece of the BEAD pie. That meant states had to re-open a bidding process many had already started (and some had finished) and resulted in many states putting only a fraction of their allocated BEAD funding toward broadband deployments. The changes left the program with roughly half of its funding left over; those funds colloquially became known as the BEAD non-deployment funds. With that much money remaining after the Benefit of the Bargain round last year, NTIA was forced to figure out how to spend the rest of the funds originally designated to broadband access and adoption, affordability, cybersecurity education, digital skills training, and support services while also conforming to executive orders from the White House.
It appears some of the delay in releasing details about the remaining funds may have been the need to have all 56 final proposals approved before announcing the new funding round. It took NTIA until the last week of August to finally approve Illinois’s final proposal (making the last BEAD-eligible entity to win approval for its broadband deployment plans). But if only a portion of the leftover funding in each state will go toward the additional funding round, that leaves questions about how NTIA plans to fund actual non-deployment activities. It’s also not clear when or if NTIA will release additional guidance on the non-deployment portion of the BEAD funds or how much will remain for non-
deployment purposes after the additional round of bidding, but don’t expect details anytime soon.
