- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
The federal government is giving states another opportunity to fund broadband service for unserved locations omitted from earlier deployment plans, potentially including homes and businesses on tribal lands.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced the supplemental funding round Sept. 3 as part of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, known as BEAD. The agency will provide states and territories with updated lists of potentially unserved locations, which they must review before conducting another funding round.
The supplemental funding, totaling $21 billion, stems from recalculated costs and a program reorganization launched shortly after the Trump administration took office in early 2025. It is not a new allocation outright, but derived from money left after final proposals from states, who will manage the deployments for subgrantees like tribes, were received throughout 2024.
Joni Theobald, a partner and principal consultant at Madison, Wis.-based InnoNative Solutions LLC, which advises tribes on broadband planning, funding and state consultation, said the supplemental round presents an opportunity for tribes — but not a direct tribal funding program. Tribes will need to work through state offices and determine quickly whether eligible locations on their tribal lands appear on the federal lists.
In a briefing with Tribal Business News, Theobald discussed how the supplemental process works, why tribes should engage states soon and how tribal consent can shape projects on tribal lands. Here are four key takeaways.
This is not a tribal set-aside.
As in the initial BEAD process, the supplemental funding will go to states and territories rather than directly to tribal governments. Tribes and tribal entities may benefit as subgrantees or through projects serving tribal lands, but they have to work through a state-administered process.
Theobald said that makes relationships with state broadband offices important as states review the supplemental location lists and decide how eligible areas will be served.
“Tribal lands can benefit from this round, but the benefit is indirect and the window to influence it is short,” Theobald said.
Tribes should engage before states publish their lists.
NTIA will provide each state and territory with a list of potentially unserved locations that were not covered by its approved plan. States and territories will have 30 calendar days to review the list, apply required exclusions and remove locations.
The revised lists must be published within seven days after the review. Broadband providers, local governments and nonprofit organizations will have 30 days to challenge listed locations. But the challenge process can only remove locations; it cannot add omitted locations.
Because the challenge process cannot add locations, tribes may need to engage before states publish their revised lists. Theobald advised tribal governments to request the eligible-location list from their state broad office, ask which locations the state intends to select and seek government-to-government consultation rather than participating only in general stakeholder meetings.
“If tribes wait for the state to call, the decisions will already be made,” Theobald said. “The tribes that set terms first are the ones whose projects move forward.”
Existing tribal projects may have an edge.
Tribes and tribal utilities already participating in BEAD may be positioned to compete for newly identified locations in the supplemental round because they have developed the capacity to manage broadband awards, Theobald said.
For example, expanding an approved tribal project to serve additional unserved locations may offer a state a lower-cost option, Theobald said. That matters because the NTIA will use a cost-per-location formula to determine how much supplemental funding each state receives, according to the supplemental deployment notice.
“Tribes built real grantee capacity, and that capacity is the asset going into this round,” Theobald said. “The tribes in the best position are the ones already holding a BEAD project area, because adding locations to an approved tribal build is usually the lowest cost option a state has on a cost per location basis.”
Tribal consent can be used to establish project terms.
BEAD projects involving deployment on tribal lands require a resolution of consent from the tribal government, Theobald said. Rather than treating that resolution as routine approval, she advises tribes to use it to establish expectations for how a project will be built and operated.
“Treat consent as a contract instead of a signature,” Theobald said. “The blanks in a consent resolution are where a tribe sets terms, including technology, operations, timelines, and conditions such as cultural monitors or local hire.”
She also recommended that tribes establish standing broadband consent policies and right-of-way fee schedules before states or providers approach them about individual projects. She also said tribes should use rights of way processes to ensure consultation and consent for fiber crossing trust lands, even when the tribe is not the builder.
