New Mexico has announced the criteria and deadlines for its $675 million Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program allotment. It has set a February 27 round one application deadline.
According to a National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) funding alert, the state’s BEAD funding is being administered by the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE). The deadline will be followed by a review and curing period (February 24-March 28), negotiation (March 31-May 16), and the provisional announcement of awards (May 19-June 19).
Applicants for New Mexico’s BEAD funds must have been approved during the prequalification phase. The requirements consist of primary (300 points) and secondary (100 points) criteria. The primary criteria call for compliance in four areas: meeting the minimum BEAD outlay (100 points), the matching contribution (50 points), the lowest price gigabit service (100 points), and the federal labor law (50 points).
The secondary criteria focus on serving high-cost areas (30 points), reaching low-income areas (29 points), the technical review (20 points), community and partnership support (15 points), aggregation of project area units (5 points), and speed to deployment (1 point).
Bidders for BEAD funds in New Mexico include cooperatives, nonprofit organizations, public-private partnerships, private companies, public or private utilities, public utility districts, and local governments.
Several states have provided information on their rules late last year.
Applications in Hawaii must be received by The University of Hawaii Broadband Office (UHBO) by January 31. The state, which was awarded $149 million, has issued eight RFPs, split between unserved/underserved locations and community anchor institutions.
Applications for Washington’s $1.2 billion in BEAD funds also are due on the last day of this month. A second deadline is possible if funding is not exhausted during the first.
More than 40 providers are eligible for funding in North Carolina. The state has about $282 million available. Interested organizations must meet to two deadlines — January 21 and February 17 — for submissions of various forms.
Additional information about New Mexico broadband, including BEAD Program progress, links to state funding resources, previous awards made, state specific Telecompetitor coverage and more, can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
NRTC owns Pivot Group, which publishes Telecompetitor.