Vermont BEAD Eligibility Challenge Process
Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) will kick off Vermont’s state-led Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) challenge process on March 18, 2024. The challenge process will permit local government, nonprofit organizations, and broadband service providers to challenge the service availability at Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) from the FCC's National Broadband Map and Community Anchor Institutions identified by the VCBB.
Access information, data, and registration at our BEAD Challenge Information Page. These challenges will determine VCBB’s final list of BSLs that are eligible for BEAD funding. Challenges must be based on whether the BEAD map correctly shows if BSLs are served, underserved, or unserved for purposes of BEAD, not whether a BSL appears or does not appear on the BEAD map.
Vermont's BEAD Challenge timeline:
- Official announcement, posted cured Volume 1 Proposal, updated website with final timeline: March 11th
- Challenge Submission Portal Open: March 18th at 9am – April 1st at 12pm (noon)
- VCBB Initial Review and MDU/Area Challenge Analysis: April 2nd – April 11th
- Submitted Challenges posted on public Vermont BEAD Challenge Hubsite: April 12th
- Rebuttal Process: April 15th at 9am – April 29th at 12pm (noon)
- VCBB Final Adjudication Period: April 29th – May 22nd
- VCBB Final Data Deduplication Period: May 23rd – June 14th
- Best estimated date of Vermont’s BEAD Final Eligibility Data posted publicly & submission to NTIA – June 17th
BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2:
The BEAD Initial Proposal describes to the federal government Vermont's plans to use $229 Million of BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) money available from the federal government. It is broken into two volumes. BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2 outlines the process Vermont will use to select the Internet Service Providers who will receive BEAD money to build out unserved and underserved addresses and details the requirements these providers must meet to be eligible for funding. It was submitted to the NTIA in November 2023. VCBB is currently awaiting curing requirements from the NTIA. You can read the final version of BEAD submitted to the NTIA below:
BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2 as of March 30, 2024, with responses to NTIA substantive curing.
NTIA BEAD Vol. 2 Substantive Curing
The NTIA has provided comments on Volume 2 of Vermont’s BEAD Initial Proposal. The following issues have been identified. The VCBB welcomes input and feedback on these issues. Please send any feedback to vcbb.info@vermont.gov.
BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 1:
BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 1 includes initial identification of unserved and underserved locations, definition of community anchor institutions, and proposed pre-challenge process location modifications and challenge process to modify the federal mapping data and make it more relevant to Vermont. It was submitted to the NTIA in September 2023, multiple rounds of curing were received, and the version below represents the cured version that was resubmitted to the NTIA in December 2023. Vermont is currently awaiting final approval of Initial Proposal Volume 1 from the NTIA and can begin the statewide BEAD challenge process once this approval is secured.
BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 1 Final Version cured on March 8, 2024
BEAD Five-Year Action Plan:
Vermont BEAD Five-Year Action Plan - The Five-Year Action Plan describes Vermont’s broadband goals and priorities and serves as a comprehensive needs assessment that will inform the State’s Initial Proposal. It was submitted to the NTIA in August and has been accepted by both the NTIA and NIST.
Other BEAD links:
See the results of our public survey.
Vermont BEAD Five-Year Action Plan and Initial Proposal Volume 1 Webinar Summary
Learn more about the BEAD Program and the BEAD NOFO.