States/Territories

Frequently asked questions and responses on NTIA's Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program.

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Last Updated: 06/16/2026

Access Cross-Program Tiered EA Guidance

Access Tiered EA Guidance and Template

Access Programmatic Review Resource

This document outlines the programmatic NEPA review process.

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This document provides comprehensive guidance for preparing a tiered Environmental Assessment (EA).

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This template expedites NEPA review for projects requiring Environmental Assessment (EA).

Download Guidance and Template (DOCX)

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Local permitting for broadband deployments may include approvals, authorizations, easements, and right-of-way permits from towns, counties, and other municipal entities. NTIA explains the importance of local permitting and offers strategies and examples of how project teams and local governments can address challenges and increase processing efficiency.

IIJA directs Eligible Entities to begin the BEAD challenge process with the FCC National Broadband Map. Eligible Entities are required to identify a version of the FCC map in their BEAD Initial Proposals, and then are permitted to incorporate a more recent version of the FCC map both before and/or after running the BEAD challenge process. The "true-up" with the most recent FCC map is intended to ensure that the Eligible Entity conducts its subgrantee selection process with the most accurate list of BSLs eligible for BEAD funding within its jurisdiction.

This resource covers additions recently made to NTIA’s challenge policy notice on how to submit challenge process results, such as additional challenge codes for pre-challenge modifications and additional CSV files that state and territory broadband offices will need to submit to NTIA. It also covers how to derive the final list of locations and CAIs, including post-challenge deduplication.

These CSV templates are intended to support Eligible Entities in implementing the challenge results submission data format requirements. Additional guidance detailing the data formats of these files can be found in the BEAD Challenge Process Policy Notice.

Challengers.csv

A CSV file detailing the challengers who submitted challenges to the Eligible Entity’s initial set of BEAD-eligible locations.