BEAD Program
About BEAD
The Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program is a federal initiative administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Through this program, Tennessee has been given $813,319,680.22 to expand high-speed internet access through infrastructure and adoption programs.
Interested in Applying for BEAD?
Please keep up to date with this webpage as updates will be published here.
In compliance with the NTIA BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice, the TNECD Broadband Office is preparing to open the Benefit of the Bargain round of the BEAD Program July 7. Organizations must have submitted a Benefit of the Bargain Letter of Intent to be eligible for this round of the grant application.
BEAD Subgrantee Selection Map
- On the map, BSLs that will not be served by BEAD funding are colored gray.
- In the eligible locations file, these BSLs are indicated as “Yes” under the No BEAD column.
Key Dates
The schedule below outlines the timeline of the Benefit for the Bargain Application Round, which will take place summer of 2025. Dates marked with an asterisk are tentative.
- Letter of Intent: June 16 – June 24
- Qualification: July 7 – July 16
- Benefit of the Bargain Grant Application: July 7 – July 16*
Register for our Upcoming Office Hours
ECD invites Benefit of the Bargain applicants to join us in the following office hours:
- July 9th from 10:30-11:30am CT: Register Here
- July 11th from 1:00-2:00pm CT: Register Here
- July 15th from 1:30-2:30pm CT: Register Here
- Benefit of the Bargain Qualification Application
- Benefit of the Bargain Grant Application
- BEAD Guidebook
- Five Year Action Plan
- TN Model Letter of Credit
- BEAD Construction Timeline Estimate
- BEAD Budget Helptext
- BEAD Application Submission - Certification
- BEAD Budget Template
- BEAD Benefit of the Bargain Guidance
BEAD Challenge Process
Tennessee conducted the BEAD Challenge Process in the spring and summer of 2024. Please find the BEAD eligibility data and map above.
CostQuest Fabric version 3.2 was used for Tennessee’s Challenge Process and version 4 was used for the true-up.
Please find relevant dates below:
- BDC publication update date used for true-up: 9/17/24
- BDC submission true-up date: 12/31/23
- BDC publication update date used in Challenge Process: 3/5/24
- BDC submission date used in Challenge Process: 6/30/23