BEAD Program
About BEAD
The Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program is a federal initiative administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Adminstration (NTIA). Through this program, Tennessee has been given $813,319,680.22 to expand high-speed internet access through infrastructure and adoption programs.
BEAD Letter of Intent (LOI)
TNECD is accepting Letters of Intent until 11:59PM CT October 23, 2024. Per Tennessee’s Initial BEAD Proposal Volume II, all applicants must submit a Letter of Intent to be eligible to apply for BEAD Program funding. Applicants will not be held to the county areas or technology indicated in the Letter of Intent at the time of the application. TNECD recommends reviewing the funding eligibility data pending NTIA approval under the "Final Determination Resources" section of this page before submitting a Letter of Intent.
Please keep up to date with this webpage as updates will be published here.
Counties eligible for BEAD funding have been divided into a maximum of three Project Areas Units (PAUs) based on the final set of eligible Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs). Project areas encompass unserved and underserved locations. At the time of application, applicants must commit to serve 100% of eligible BSLs in identified project areas.
Find the PAU Map here
We encourage all Tennesseans to view the Project Area Units visible on the map. This displays the final PAUs with updates from the Public Comment but does not yet include final BSL eligibility approved by NTIA. We expect to publish the final map in October.
Upcoming items:
- Please check back for additional application resources to be published Fall 2024.
Register for our Upcoming Webinar and Office Hours
ECD invites grant applicants to join us in an upcoming webinar and office hours. The webinar will provide a thorough understanding of the BEAD grant program while office hours will include a review of FAQs and opportunities for Q&A. Please register below:
BEAD Challenge Process
Final Determination Phase Resources
Final Determination Challenge Process Data
Pre-final eligibility data from the Challenge Process pending approval from NTIA.
Pre-final data from submitted challenges, pending
approval from NTIA.
Explanation of Columns in CSV
Challenge Process Data
The below data includes the status of challenges prior to completing the Final Determination Phase. Please note that the status of locations may change as a result of the state’s adjudication, true up, and deduplication process.