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Meeting Format

Meeting format (CBO updates, Q&A, recorded)
Your time to ask us questions, provide comments
Gain insights from stakeholders
We can’t discuss specific applications or provide guidance

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BEAD Grant Program

Brandy Reitter, CBO Executive Director

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121,345 Colorado households lack access to quality high-speed internet

On the road to 99%: Broadband coverage as of June 2025

Current Status:

95.8%

Goal: Rural Households Connected

70%

Current Status:

77.7%

Goal: Households Connected

94.8%

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Progress Made on BEAD

Engagement - CBO held 400+ stakeholder meetings and met with 5,000+ people.

Workforce

Relationships with people across the state—from workforce centers to telecom companies
Training brought together community members, local leaders, and industry partners
Awareness through conversations about broadband careers across Colorado—especially in rural communities. From school expos to local events, we’ve helped build awareness around opportunities that many people didn’t even know existed

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Progress Made on BEAD

Digital Equity - The NTIA awarded Colorado $12,368,261 in a Digital Equity Act Capacity Grant to implement Colorado’s Digital Access Plan

May 9, 2025 the federal funding for the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant was terminated, effective immediately

Mapping

Ran Challenge Process to identify BEAD-eligible locations
Created project areas to simplify bidding
Collected data on newly served locations to avoid overbuilding

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BEAD Application Summary

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BEAD Restructured

On June 6, 2025, the NTIA issued new policy directives requiring changes to the BEAD Program.

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Eliminates or changes the following non-statutory requirements sections in the NOFO:

Labor, employment and workforce development
Climate resilience (only recommends best practices)
Open access/net neutrality
Local coordination and stakeholder engagement, Tribal coordination
Support of non-traditional providers, i.e. municipalities and political subdivisions
Middle Class Affordability Plan

Summary of Major Changes: Requirements

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Low-cost Service Option

States cannot set a specific rate, only the provider
Provider must provide one low cost plan and meet required speeds
Life Line is sufficient

Benefit of the Bargain Round

Requires states to run a new single-round BEAD application process, named “Benefit of the Bargain Round,” reflecting a technology neutral approach.

Summary of Major Changes: Requirements Cont.

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Benefit of the Bargain Round

Brandy Reitter, CBO Executive Director

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Changes made to the subgrantee selection process:

States are required to conduct an additional round
Preliminary and provisional awards are rescinded
States have 90 days to complete this process
NTIA will complete its review of submitted Final Proposal in 90 days
All applicants must be rescored regardless of previous participation
No price caps, but NTIA will determine excessive costs during approvals

Summary of Major Changes: Benefit of the Bargain Round

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Changes made to the subgrantee selection process:

Applications will be open to all eligible entities (whether applied previously or not)
Primary Criteria - Total project cost eligible for BEAD funding

States must select the lowest-cost option for a set of locations
Lowest-cost option must be used when analyzing competing proposals

Secondary Criteria

For applicants that propose to serve the same project cost within 15% of the lowest-cost proposal received, States must conduct an evaluation using speed to deployment, speed of network/other technology capabilities, and preliminary or provisional status

No allowances for non-deployment funding

Summary of Major Changes: Benefit of the Bargain Round

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Benefit of the Bargain Application Round

What to expect from CBO:

New Revised BEAD Program Guidelines
Applicants may submit more than one Application, and submit more than one Application per Project Area
Process for previous existing applicants vs new applicants
If you haven’t started, start preparing NOW - Portal Help guide
Previous applicants will be able reference a previous application
Office Hours

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Timeline (estimated)

June 6, 2025: NTIA sends policy notice revising the BEAD Program

States (and territories) have 90 days from that notice to implement the revisions to the program and submit their Final Proposals to NTIA (Sept. 4, 2025)

June 16 - 29: ULFW Process
Early July: CBO will publish updated eligible locations and guidelines & Benefit of the Bargain application window opens
Mid August: Public Comment
Sept. 4: Final Proposal awards must be submitted to NTIA. NTIA will complete its review of each Final Proposal within 90 days of submission
(No later than) Dec. 3, 2025: NTIA decisions on Final Proposals due to States

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Mapping

Updates to eligible locations

1,157 locations added
New list will be published early July

New Project Areas

We will develop new project areas to make bidding more efficient
Applicants do not have to serve every BSL in a PA. May apply for multiple PAs

ULFW process

Intent submissions were due June 22
We will collect all supporting data by June 29
We will make final determinations by early July

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Other Programs

Brian Martin, CBO Senior Manager

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