BEAD
This brings the total number of approvals to seven states, plus the District of Columbia
Photo of Brandon Carson, head of the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, from the state governor’s office
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2025 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on Tuesday it has approved Volume 2 of Pennsylvania’s BEAD implementation plan.
The second of two parts, volume two details how states will administer grant programs with their slice of the $42.5 billion made available by the Infrastructure Act’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Volume one outlines how states will accept challenges to broadband coverage data to get a more accurate sense of which individual homes and businesses lack connectivity.
Pennsylvania is the seventh state, plus the District of Columbia, to receive full approval. Delaware, Washington, and D.C. got the green light late last week. With its volume two approved, Pennsylvania will have one year to award grants with its $1.16 billion allocation.
“Today, Pennsylvania can move its Internet for All efforts from planning to action,” NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said in a statement. “I congratulate the Pennsylvania State Broadband office for developing a strong proposal for how they will connect all of the state’s residents to high-speed Internet service.”
Davidson and Gina Raimondo, head of the Commerce Department, which houses the NTIA, recently testified to Congress that the agency is looking to keep the recent spate of approvals going and get all state plans out the door by this fall.
Pennsylvania will have to finish up its challenge process before it can start fielding grant applications. The state began accepting challenges to broadband coverage data for the program on April 24, and will be accepting them until May 23. Under BEAD rules, challenges can come from nonprofits, local governments, and ISPs who have committed to build in currently un- or underserved areas.
When that window closes, providers whose coverage was challenged will have another 30 days to submit countervailing evidence, followed by another 30 period in which the state broadband office will weigh the submissions and make final determinations.
So far 31 states have started accepting challenges, with 20 in varying stages of adjudicating evidence.
The state’s pre-challenge data shows more than 230,000 unserved locations, homes and businesses prioritized by the program because of excessively slow or nonexistent internet, and more than 50,000 underserved locations, which receive less than BEAD’s 100 * 20 Mbps minimum threshold.
Pennsylvania hasn’t posted its approved Volume 2 publicly.