About this webinar:
Following NTIA’s publication of the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice on June 6, Illinois must rerun its new grantee selection round in early July. The new policy necessitates a tight timeline, changes to affordability requirements, impacts local coordination criteria, revises the list of community anchor institutions and eligible locations, rescinds current subaward selections, and requires that states do a new selection round based on the lowest cost per project location. In response, the Illinois Office of Broadband will provide this webinar to cover the new Benefit of the Bargain round of the Connect Illinois (BEAD) Broadband Infrastructure grant program. Additionally, on Wednesday, July 2, they will educate communities on how to deploy middle-mile infrastructure, which would cover lower-cost fiber projects, allowing communities to more economically deploy more sustainable broadband infrastructure.
