The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law in November 2021, provides $550 billion in federal spending with a focus toward infrastructure.
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program and the Digital Equity Act (DE) program were funded through IIJA; both of these programs will be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
IIJA also expanded eligibility for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which helps low-income families afford internet access. 286,000 Montanans (27% of the State) will be eligible for the program. For more information, please refer to the FCC Website.
The Digital Equity Act (DE) provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and digital inclusion. Digital equity is defined in the Digital Equity Act of 2021 as “the condition in which individuals and communities have the information technology capacity that is needed for full participation in the society and economy of the United States.” Digital inclusion is defined the Digital Equity Act of 2021 as “the activities that are necessary to ensure that all individuals in the United States have access to, and the use of, affordable information and communication technologies, such a—(i) reliable fixed and wireless broadband internet service; (ii) internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user; and (iii) applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation, and collaboration; and (B) includes—(i) obtaining access to digital literacy training; (ii) the provision of quality technical support; and (iii) obtaining basic awareness of measures to ensure online privacy and cybersecurity.”
An overview of the three grant programs is included below.
Program 1: The State Digital Equity Planning Grant program provided $60 million to states, territories and tribal governments to develop digital equity plans. Under the formula grant, the State of Montana received $601,337 to support planning activities to develop the state’s digital equity plan for submission to NTIA. The Montana Department of Administration (the Department) prepared the Montana Digital Opportunity Plan, solicited comments from the public, and discussed those comments with the Communication Advisory Commission (CAC) before submitting the plan to the NTIA for review and approval. Refer to the CAC Meeting Recordings for additional information.
Program 2: The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program is a $1.44 billion formula grant program for states, territories and tribal governments. It will fund an annual grant program for five years in support of digital equity projects and the implementation of digital equity plans. The NTIA is expected to announce the grant awards in early 2024.
Program 3: Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is a $1.25 billion competitive grant program that will fund annual grants for five years.
Refer to the NTIA’s website for additional information.The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs. Montana was allocated a $629 million grant under the BEAD program to improve broadband coverage across the state. BEAD program requirements focus this funding on unserved, locations unable to obtain broadband service of at least 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and three (3) Mbps (25/3 Mbps), and underserved locations, those locations with broadband service between 25/3 Mbps and 100/20 Mbps, and 1 Gbps symmetric for community anchor institutions (CAIs).
To receive the $629 million in BEAD funding, the State must comply with the NTIA requirements. MBO has completed all prior and updated requirements to date. As required by NTIA, MBO will conduct a subgrantee selection process and subsequently submit a final proposal to NTIA by September 4, 2025.
The Prequalification Round reopened on June 14, 2025, and the Benefit of the Bargain Round opened on July 7, 2025. The Benefit of the Bargain round will close on July 25, 2025.
The State must comply with the NTIA BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requirements when selecting projects. Under NTIA guidelines, the State must award projects to provide coverage of all unserved locations followed by all underserved locations and if funding allows, eligible community anchor institutions. Initial Proposal Volume 2 and the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice outlines the process the state will use to select subgrantees.
The State has designed the subgrantee selection criteria consistent with NTIA guidance. The term “Priority Broadband Project” means a project that provides broadband service at speeds of no less than 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads, has a latency less than or equal to 100 milliseconds, and can easily scale speeds over time to meet the evolving connectivity needs of households and businesses and support the deployment of 5G, successor wireless technologies, and other advanced services. Priority Broadband Projects will be also be evaluated based on the minimal BEAD program outlay and other scoring criteria as approved by the Communications Advisory Committee and in alignment with the RPN.
Completion of a prequalification application is mandatory to participate in the BEAD program. All potential recipients are encouraged to complete the prequalification process as early as possible.
Recordings and slides from all technical assistance sessions are available on the ConnectMT website.
As noted in the BEAD NOFO, except for specific circumstances where NTIA has waived the matching requirement, subrecipients are required to provide a match of 25% of subaward amount. NTIA removed the match requirement for the NTIA defined High Cost CBGs and Montana has not chosen to implement one. Please note, this is only for the 23 CBGs designated by NTIA. All other project areas would require a match. At this time, Montana has not applied for any additional waivers.
Consistent with SB 531, an eligible applicant means an entity that has authorization to do business in the state and has demonstrated that it has the technical, financial, and managerial resources and experience to provide broadband service or other communications service to customers in the state. This includes incorporated businesses or partnerships, Montana nonprofit organizations, limited liability companies, corporations, or cooperative entities organized for the purpose of expanding broadband access. A government entity or tribe is only eligible to apply in partnership with an eligible broadband service provider.
In order to be eligible to receive BEAD funding from the State of Montana, subgrantees must:
Yes, startups may apply for BEAD funding. Startup entities must follow the same process and guidelines as existing entities applying for BEAD funding. New entrants to the market will be required to submit documentation illustrating their minimum qualifications and be required to meet the same threshold as all other applicants. This includes audited financial statements, evidence of managerial capacity and organizational readiness to implement the program. The ConnectMT Broadband Office will require applicants to provide materials that document the length of time they have been doing business in the state. The ConnectMT Broadband Office will verify this by reviewing the Certificate of Good Standing from the Montana Secretary of State.
Applicants are not required to serve CAIs, regardless of unserved or underserved classification.
Yes, the State will provide a detailed map of CBGs, eligible BSLs, and CAIs for applicants. This information was published prior to the opening of the Benefit of the Bargain Round application in the Location List.
The Broadband Availability Map is the outcome of Montana's BEAD Challenge process, identifying which locations within Census Block Groups (CBGs) are eligible for funding under the BEAD program. Each CBG outlines the number of served, unserved, and underserved locations, the total number of locations, the benchmarking reference price, and the percentage of the CBG eligible for BEAD funding. With the issuance of the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice it has been updated as of July 16, 2025.
The ConnectMT BEAD Map can be found at https://connectmt.mt.gov/IIJA/IIJA-Map or by visiting the ConnectMT homepage at https://connectmt.mt.gov/, selecting the IIJA/BEAD tab, following the dropdown menu to IIJA Map, and selecting the State Broadband Availability Map tab.
The ConnectMT Broadband Office has updated the map as of July 16, 2025.
The Locations List templated .csv file is available on the ConnectMT website and it is also included in Appendix A of the Main Round Application Guide Addendum.
All applicants should be using version 6 of the fabric data, although the Challenge process was conducted on version 3.2 fabric data.
It is no longer required to apply for an entire Project Area CBG and provide a descoping list. Instead, you will be able to apply directly for individual locations.
No, any applicants that submitted a Main Round application are not required to submit a new Benefit of the Bargain application. Returning applicants can choose if they would like submit a new application or keep their original one. There are new requirements due to updated NTIA policy, we ask returning applicants to submit this new required information/documentation in Section 10 of the Main Round application. Please see the Addendum in the User Guide for instructions on what needs to be provided.
Response: Existing applicants are able to choose two paths to participate in the Benefit of the Bargain Round. They may either:
The ConnectMT Broadband Office does not have a preference as to which approach the existing applicant would take. Please note, all curing should be addressed in either instance and that applicants will receive the "existing" applicant credit in either case as long as the project proposed is fundamentally similar to the previously proposed project.
No, conditional ILOC commitments will not be accepted. Any ILOC submitted as part of a BEAD application must be without conditions.
The financial ratios will be calculated based on the applicant information (see Initial Proposal Volume II, Section 2.4.11.a). As a reminder, if the applicant is relying on a parent company audit, this pro forma should cover the full company, not just the project.
The parent company guarantee will be included as part of the grant agreement (see Draft Grant Agreement, Exhibit I).
Providing a schedule of ratios is not a required component of the application, but it is something that can be provided by the applicant in order to make a stronger case as to why the applicant should be selected. There are not specific ratios that must be met by the applicant, but it is a factor that is considered during the underwriting process.
Please see below for a few resources that may be helpful as you create your cybersecurity and risk management plans:
The legal opinion may be signed by an attorney barred in any state. Please ensure the completing attorney identifies which state they are barred in and provides their associated bar number.
There should be a re-baselining phase after awards are distributed in which the engineering will be reviewed again. However, applicants should assume that they are committing to what they put in the application. Nevertheless, the state may entertain reasonable change requests.
No. BABA requirements apply only to new infrastructure/additions. Recipients will not be required to retrofit previously built infrastructure to meet BABA certification requirements.
The upfront payment for an IRU will be reimbursable at the point when IRU agreements are completed. Monthly/recurring costs are allowable during the period of performance only.
Projects must be supported with sufficient backhaul to meet the BEAD program’s speed and latency requirements. However, the BEAD NOFO does not specify that the backhaul needs to be in the same tier of technology as the deployed project. BEAD projects will be classified at the lowest tier funded by BEAD dollars. If the project’s specified backhaul solution is not funded through BEAD (i.e. identified in the network design documents, but not accounted for in the project budget) then the project will be classified at the lowest tier of technology funded with BEAD dollars. For example, a priority fiber application that utilizes microwave backhaul will still be considered priority as long as BEAD funds are not being used for the lower tier technology backhaul.
Yes, customer-premises equipment (CPE) is an eligible cost. Page 39 of the BEAD NOFO further defines eligible costs related to last-mile deployment projects.
There will be no determinations based on technology tiers. The new criteria is based on priority, cost, and secondary scoring.
Yes, an application using licensed spectrum in the last-mile connection to each BSL can be considered a licensed fixed wireless application. Additionally, use of unlicensed spectrum to augment throughput or capacity is allowed.
Yes, a CBRS PAL license bonded with contiguous CBRS GAA is considered licensed use.
The majority of fixed wireless systems are Time Division Duplex (TDD) and requirements will be evaluated on TDD configurations.
Yes. For permitting or other agency-specific questions, please reach out to the agency directly. More details can be found at each of the links below:
NTIA is currently updating guidance. MBO anticipates subgrantees will be required to submit reports to the state, at least semiannually, for the duration of the subgrant to track the effectiveness of the use of funds provided.
Subgrantee reports must include the following items:
Funds awarded to tribes may be used as matching funds for BEAD only if they are from federal programs in the Infrastructure Act explicitly listed in the BEAD NOFO. The NOFO states: “Except as expressly provided for in the Infrastructure Act, funds from other Federal programs (including funds from the Commission’s Universal Service Fund programs) may not be used as matching funds. The Infrastructure Act expressly provides that matching funds for the BEAD Program may come from a federal regional commission or authority and from funds that were provided to an Eligible Entity or a subgrantee for the purpose of deploying broadband service under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Public Law 116-127; 134 Stat. 178); the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136; 134 Stat. 281), the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260; 134 Stat. 1182); or the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2; 135 Stat. 4), to the extent permitted by those laws. Eligible Entities are encouraged to consider terms and conditions that may be associated with potential sources of match funds and how those may impact the project overall. For example, if an Eligible Entity utilizes federal regional commission funding as a match, the project will need to comply with all BEAD programmatic requirements and any requirements imposed by the federal regional commission. Likewise, Eligible Entities that use funds from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds or Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund as the source of matching funds for the BEAD Program must comply with the requirements of both the BEAD Program and the relevant Treasury program. Loan funding issued through a federal agency, such as through the USDA ReConnect Program, may also be used as match funding.” (See BEAD NOFO Section III.B.3 p. 21.)
ConnectMT Website: Landing page where additional broadband opportunities and program guidance will be published.
Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Signup: All eligible participants are encouraged to participate in the ACP. Applicants are encouraged to incorporate the ACP in their community outreach and adoption strategies. Further, all BOOT Grantees will be required to participate in the ACP as a condition of accepting funding.
System for Award Management (SAM): All subrecipients are required to maintain an Active registration on SAM.GOV. Further, a subrecipient should search and retain documentation that all contractors/vendors are not debarred.
Uniform Administration Requirements (2 CFR Part 200): All federally funded grant programs will follow compliance requirements of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards.
Procurement Threshold Definitions (48 CFR Part 2 Subpart 2.1): Federal procurement thresholds may be updated periodically. Subrecipients should follow the thresholds in effect at the time of the grant agreement.
Build America Buy America Factsheet and FAQs and Buy America website: Subrecipients will be required to comply with Buy America. The OMB published an initial FAQ and continues to update its website with additional guidance.
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program: The NTIA website that outlines BEAD program updates and guidance.