HUD News

Washington- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is encouraging affordable housing facilities to help states and territories determine where to give funding to expand high-speed internet access by participating in the BEAD Challenge process.

HUD’s Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said, “Online participation is a necessary resource to thrive in today’s society and this BEAD funding will help address the urgent need to connect everyone to affordable and reliable high-speed Internet service. Working together, we can ensure that these funds reach those most in need.”

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, managed by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is allocating $42.45 billion in federal grants for the deployment of reliable and affordable high-speed internet infrastructure. This initiative focuses on unserved or underserved communities across the U.S. All 50 states, U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will receive funding to administer subgrant programs for building internet infrastructure within their respective communities.

Each state and territory will be running its own BEAD Challenge process to get feedback on homes, small businesses, and institutions such as schools and libraries that are eligible to be connected via BEAD-funded projects. The process includes an eligible challenger who can challenge a determination made by the state whether a location is unserved or underserved by high-speed internet service.

The FCC map’s depiction of service availability for multi-dwelling unit (MDU) housing, like apartment buildings, might not accurately represent service accessibility for each unit in the building. HUD advises MDU owners and managers to collaborate with eligible challengers to verify and correct their availability data.

States and Territories tend to enjoy the flexibility of the BEAD Program regarding how to run their challenge processes along with the types of challenges they allow. Eligible challengers can consult the broadband office of the state or territory to find out when and how challenges would be submitted.

Every state will have different dates for the challenge process. Some states have already begun the process while others are planning to do so. For more information regarding the same, you can visit the official website.