- NTIA chief Arielle Roth confirmed it is asking states and providers to lower costs for certain BEAD projects
- She argued this part of the agency's effort to be good stewards of BEAD dollars and the move was well-telegraphed ahead of time
- She also discussed the importance of avoiding defaults on BEAD projects
SCTE TECH EXPO 2025, WASHINGTON DC – NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth defended the agency’s reported push to combat “unreasonable” Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) costs, arguing that states had plenty of warning the agency would flag excessively costly projects.
Though states were given plenty of leeway in the new BEAD guidelines to decide what qualifies as a priority broadband project, Roth noted the NTIA has seen a number of projects come in that are “quite costly to an excessive extent.”
She confirmed that – as previously reported – the NTIA has flagged those projects and has sent them back to the states to ask providers who bid in those areas for their “best and final offer.”
While this secondary review process has upset some, Roth said states knew this was coming. The additional scrutiny for costly projects was outlined in the new guidance issued in June, she said.
Additionally, it’s a matter of making sure BEAD money is well spent.
“Our role is to be good stewards of the money,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we didn’t look under the hood and make sure that Americans aren’t on the hook for costs that would be unreasonable.”
Dodging defaults and permitting hurdles
Roth said the NTIA is busy pouring over final proposals it has received from 43 states to meet the 90-day deadline set in the new guidelines. New Street Research on Sept. 25 said a total of 48 proposals had been submitted by states and territories, but it’s possible Roth was omitting territories from her tally.
She stressed the agency’s review will help ensure that BEAD money goes to “serious providers who are going to deliver on their promises and that we’re not going to see defaults.”
The latter point was notable given previous broadband expansion projects – including the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) – were plagued by defaults. According to a tally by the Benton Institute, $3.3 billion worth of projects awarded as part of the $9.2 billion RDOF program were in default as of 2025.
Roth added that once proposals are approved, the goal is rapid deployments. To that end, she noted the NTIA has set up a new permitting tool to provide exemptions from environmental (NEPA) reviews where appropriate.
“We’re anticipating that 95% of BEAD projects will hopefully get an exclusion” based on the the tool the NTIA has created, she said.
But Roth noted that state and local governments will still play a critical role in facilitating BEAD rollouts and called on them to ensure they “aren’t contributing to the risk of defaults by imposing excessive regulatory costs and delays on providers.”
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