Update 11/12/2025 3:45 p.m. ET: After this story's publication, NTIA announced it's working to reform its tribal broadband programs and launch a new Notice of Funding Opportunity in 2026. NTIA added it's not rescinding any obligated awards. The original story follows.
- Senators are asking NTIA what’s going on with tribal broadband funding
- The funding hold-up has been “frustrating,” said Tribal Ready CEO Joe Valandra
- Many tribes are still waiting on gov’t approval to begin deployment, he added
Tribal broadband access – or lack thereof – is still a relevant point of discussion, as U.S. senators urge NTIA to explain what happened to funding for the $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).
Roughly $980 million in Round 2 funding remains unobligated despite applications closing in March 2024, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) noted in a letter last week. Another $294 million in grants announced last December have not been distributed.
“We are concerned that the agency is reportedly applying additional, unnecessary standards and requirements to applications, resulting in uncertainty that threatens the success of existing and planned projects,” the senators wrote.
Their concern comes as the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program has undergone a series of changes this year, including a restructured funding notice, cost caps and a new requirement around taking additional federal subsidies.
Unlike BEAD, TBCP has been underway for a while. The program to-date has awarded $2.24 billion to 275 Tribal broadband projects across the country.
“It’s frustrating, to say the least,” said Tribal Ready CEO Joe Valandra on the funding hold-up.
He told Fierce that to his knowledge NTIA staff last year fully reviewed the Round 2 awards and sent them to the Commerce Secretary’s desk for final approval.
However, the change in administration has put that money in limbo – money that tribes “desperately need to complete deploying their broadband networks.”
Ookla data paints a grim picture of the tribal broadband landscape. The company found 36% of 110 tribal nations have median fixed download speeds below 100 Mbps, which is the FCC’s minimum benchmark.
For some tribes, their median download speed is considerably lower than the average for their respective state.
Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, for example, has an average fixed downlink speed of just 6.15 Mbps, compared to the state average of 332.92 Mbps.
The waiting game
Valandra noted the first round of TBCP doled out approximately $1.86 billion. Although that money “appear[s] to be flowing,” many tribes are still waiting on administrative and environmental approvals to begin their deployments – and the ongoing shutdown isn’t helping in that regard.
TBCP policy states recipients have four years from the date of the award to complete the project. Given it’s been about two and a half years since the first batch of awards and approvals are ongoing, there’s not much time left for deployment, he said.
“If there’s only a year to build out a fairly extensive network, it would make sense that an extension would be given or some sort of deferment of time,” Valandra said.
“But no one’s confident of that, given the current environment we’re in,” he said.
Another issue is that tribes are typically “under-resourced” and don’t have enough people on staff to tackle big broadband projects, Valandra explained. This especially applies to small and medium-sized tribes but also to some of the larger communities.
BEAD a big ‘disappointment’ for tribes
Valandra’s also not too optimistic that BEAD will help tribes get better broadband access.
In his view, the overall program has been “very disappointing,” and the states haven’t been much help in encouraging tribes to participate.
“Many states just sent letters to tribes and said, if you want help or if you want information, call this number. That was probably more typical than not,” said Valandra.
He did acknowledge Alaska and Arizona were two states that ran “very extensive” outreach programs to include tribes in BEAD. Alaska notably has 229 federally recognized tribes – higher than any other state.
Want to learn more about broadband rollout in the U.S.? Don't miss Fierce Network and TIA's Broadband Nation Expo in Orlando, Florida, from Nov. 17-19. Speakers include T-Mobile, Comcast, AT&T, U.S. Department of Commerce, NTIA and more. Register today.