A new study from the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School shows the full scale of the sprawling, overlapping permitting process that that BEAD funded broadband builds have to navigate to deliver connectivity to our nation’s most underserved communities.
Where the Permits Pile Up
Across the 6,933 terrestrial BEAD projects, ACLP identifies 86,402 distinct permits that need to be secured before construction can reliably begin.
- Over half of all projects require more than 10 permits.
- 1 in 7 projects require more than 20 permits.
While every project encounters county level permitting, many projects face additional hurdles:
- 95% require federal environmental review;
- 76% require state permits, chiefly highway right of way;
- 71% require private or third party agreements;
- 62% require municipal permits.
The typical BEAD build is subject to 8 different permitting authorities, each with its own process, timeline, and ability to delay a project.The permitting challenges are not confined to a handful of hard-to-build states. ACLP finds that BEAD projects overlap 12,146 municipalities and 2,449 counties across the country inadvertently creating a piecemeal permitting system that proves difficult for providers to naviate.
Where NTIA Can Help
ACLP is right that most permitting bottlenecks sit at the state and local level, and that is also where NTIA has room to help. A few steps would allow construction for BEAD projects to move significantly faster:
- NTIA should allow states to use remaining BEAD non deployment funds to accelerate local permitting. With roughly $21 billion in leftover BEAD funding available, directing a portion toward permitting capacity could meaningfully speed up deployment.
- Municipalities should be able to use these funds to hire additional reviewers or outsource permit processing, rather than letting applications sit in a backlog.
- States should be able to invest in digital tools to track, process, and approve BEAD related permits more efficiently, both for this round of funding and for future broadband builds.
None of this requires new legislation or a lengthy rulemaking. NTIA already has the authority to grant states additional flexibility to spend money they already have on the problem the data shows is slowing projects down.
Where Congress Can Help
NTIA can address some of this on its own, but fixing the underlying problem needs legislation. NCTA sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Committees on Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources this month calling for broadband specific provisions in any permitting reform package, including:
- Covering the federal agencies providers most frequently encounter, including the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior, Department of Defense installations, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Transportation, and equipping them with clearer authorities and coordination tools.
- Ending the practice of shifting relocation costs onto broadband providers when transportation or other federally funded projects require moving existing facilities.
Without action, subsidized broadband projects risk delays and rising costs that put billions of dollars in federal and private investment at risk.
The Bottom Line
BEAD was designed to close the digital divide once and for all, but a permitting process spread across thousands of counties, municipalities, and state and federal agencies threatens to slow that progress. ACLP’s analysis shows permitting is not a marginal issue. It touches every project, and for a meaningful share of them, it means clearing dozens of separate approvals before a single home can be connected. Addressing permitting bottlenecks now—before delays cascade into missed deadlines and defaults—is vital to ensuring BEAD’s construction projects can build out to the communities they were intended to connect.
