NTIA Blog

It was full steam ahead for the BEAD program this week, as NTIA works to get the program over the finish line and considers its next phase: how to effectively invest the remaining BEAD funds.

On Monday, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth announced that NTIA has now approved 50 out of 56 BEAD Final Proposals from states and territories, moving one step closer to ensuring universal broadband availability across America.

The next day, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, where he detailed the success of the Trump Administration’s Benefit of the Bargain reforms in restoring the BEAD program to its statutory mission of achieving universal connectivity in a technology-neutral, competitive, and disciplined manner, while generating $21 billion in savings for taxpayers.

Secretary Lutnick confirmed that $21 billion in BEAD savings would be spent in accordance with the law and highlighted NTIA’s efforts to gather feedback on how to best use the remaining funds.

Researchers from NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) designed a cross-disciplinary, collaborative workshop to explore ways to reliably expand access to mid-band spectrum.

Expanded access to mid-band spectrum is key to delivering faster wireless networks, fueling innovation, and securing America’s position as the world’s technological powerhouse. Accomplishing it begins with radio-wave propagation models produced with trusted measurements. NTIA’s spectrum laboratory, the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, is leading technical collaboration across academia, industry, and government agencies to openly, accessibly, and comprehensively share all technical aspects of measurement and modeling activities to ensure secure and reliable spectrum use.

The space industry would get new tools under recommendations from NTIA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), further advancing America’s leadership in commercial space. A joint report by NTIA and NASA calls for providing the industry with access to radio frequencies for use in space-to-space communications.

The report recommends expanded spectrum access through a new commercial allocation in the 18 GHz band (18.1-18.6 GHz), which would be paired with an allocation for Federal Government operations. The new, co-primary allocations in this band would provide regulatory certainty for the development of commercial services to meet NASA’s future needs. This aligns with Congress’s direction to NASA to utilize commercial space services whenever possible and to encourage the growth of the commercial space industry. 

The joint report, approved by NTIA’s Interagency Spectrum Advisory Council (ISAC), builds upon actions at the 2023 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23), where the 18 GHz band was allocated for space-to-space links globally.