BEAD Program

We had a highly productive year in 2023. We announced Capital Projects Fund (CPF) awards, received an allocation of $826.5 million from the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program and passed significant legislation that removes barriers to investing federal dollars, among many more things. These accomplishments were made possible by partnerships with broadband stakeholders across the state, and are highlighted in our Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) 2023 Report. There is a lot of progress to celebrate!

The Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) is excited to announce our 2024 Broadband Roadshow happening this summer. We’re looking forward to getting on the road to meet with local communities to discuss all things Colorado broadband. On this tour, we would like to address the subjects that are more relevant for you and your community.  

The “challenge phase” of the Advance-BEAD Challenge Process ran from Jan. 10 to Feb. 9, 2024. During that time approximately 21,950 locations were challenged. The CBO will send rebuttal notifications in the next two weeks and ISPs have 30 calendar days from notification of a challenge to provide a rebuttal. We aim to make final determinations of location eligibility in early May. For more information please visit the Advance-BEAD Challenge Portal.

The Advance-BEAD Challenge window closes at 11:59 p.m. MT on Friday, Feb. 9. Registered users must submit challenges by the deadline.

Not registered yet?

The deadline for ISPs, nonprofits, and local or Tribal governments to register for access to the Challenge Portal is this Wednesday, Feb. 7. If the CBO cannot verify your CostQuest License at that time, we will be unable to create an account in time for you to participate in the process.

Remember, this is the last chance we have to ensure the accuracy of our broadband map before BEAD is underway.

As part of the BEAD process the CBO requested public comment on both Initial Proposal Volume 1 and Initial Proposal Volume 2 before submission to the NTIA. The public comment period was held to promote transparency and gather feedback from all of CBO’s stakeholders.

Colorado recently received approval from the NTIA for Initial Proposal Volume 1, which means we can move forward with the challenge process. The challenge process allows ISPs, nonprofits, and local and Tribal governments to challenge the accuracy of BEAD-eligible locations.

The process begins this coming Monday, Jan. 8 with the publication of eligible locations. We will then start accepting challenges on Wednesday Jan. 10. 

Volume 1 of CBO's Initial Proposal for BEAD was approved today by the NTIA. 

Required for BEAD, this volume includes an overview of existing broadband funding and defines BEAD-eligible Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs). It also outlines how Colorado will run its state Challenge Process for BEAD, which builds on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband Map.

The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program requires the CBO to allow ISPs, nonprofits, and local and Tribal governments to challenge the accuracy of BEAD-eligible locations. These are unserved and underserved locations in Colorado.

This Challenge Process is right around the corner. In preparation, we have opened our Advance-BEAD Challenge Portal. In the portal, you will find all the resources you need to prepare for and eventually participate in the Challenge Process.

The Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) and the Office of Future Work (OFW), a Colorado Department of Labor and Employment division, have jointly unveiled their plan to tackle a major obstacle hindering broadband deployment across the state. The Broadband Workforce Plan is vital to successfully distributing $826.5 million from the federal Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding program. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released version 3.0 of the National Broadband Map. According to a blog post by FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel, the number of unserved homes and businesses is decreasing. The most recent map shows approximately 7.2 million locations without access to high-speed internet service. Version 2.0 of the map, released in May, showed 8.3 million locations.