What is BEAD?
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program is a $42.45 billion federal program created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and administered by NTIA. It funds broadband deployment to unserved and underserved locations. NTIA awards the money to Eligible Entities, meaning the 56 states, territories and the District of Columbia. They select providers, called subgrantees, to build the networks.
The rules changed materially in June 2025, when NTIA issued the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice. The notice made subgrantee selection technology-neutral, so fiber is no longer the only way to qualify as a Priority Broadband Project. It required a new “Benefit of the Bargain” selection round. It removed several NOFO requirements, including the labor, climate and middle-class affordability provisions. It also stopped states from setting the price of the low-cost service option.
BEAD guidance is still being revised. NTIA's FAQ reached version 22 in June 2026. Treat this guide as orientation, not legal or compliance advice, and confirm every obligation with your state broadband office and your subgrant agreement.
Who has to report, and to whom?
Reporting runs in a chain. Your subgrant agreement with the state sets what you report and when. The state broadband office must monitor its subgrantees and submit a Semi-Annual Report (SAR) to NTIA. Performance-testing results, for example, reach NTIA once a year, in the SAR covering July 1 to December 31, which is due January 30. Each state sets its own subgrantee deadline ahead of that date.
- 1.You (the subgrantee) keep records, run the required tests and submit reports on the schedule in your subgrant agreement.
- 2.Your state broadband office (the Eligible Entity) reviews them, checks compliance and consolidates them into its SAR.
- 3.NTIA oversees the Eligible Entities and receives summarized results.
Separately, you keep filing with the FCC. Facilities-based providers submit Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filings twice a year, with data as of June 30 and December 31. BEAD performance testing samples from the locations in those filings.
What data do subgrantees typically report?
The exact list comes from your state, but the obligations published by NTIA fall into these areas:
| Data area | What it covers | Where it lives in your systems |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment progress | Build milestones toward offering service across the project area within four years of the subgrant | Construction and network records, provisioning status per location |
| Locations served | Which BEAD locations (BSLs, identified by FCC Fabric ID) have service available and active subscribers | Subscriber and service-address records, BDC filings |
| Installation | Ability to complete a standard installation within 10 business days of a request | Order, scheduling and install records |
| Low-cost service option | A subgrantee-proposed plan of at least 100/20 Mbps and 100 ms latency for Lifeline-eligible subscribers, offered through the 10-year federal interest period | Plan catalog, eligibility records, billing |
| Network performance | Annual speed, latency and availability tests on a random sample of active subscribers, per speed tier and technology | CPE management (e.g. TR-069/TR-369), test results, outage logs |
| Financial and compliance | Costs, match, letter of credit or performance bond, and certifications required by the grant terms | Accounting, grant files |
Performance testing is the most data-heavy requirement. According to NTIA's September 2025 primer, speed tests run once an hour for a week between 6 PM and midnight local time. At least 80% of measurements must reach 80% of the committed speed tier. Latency tests run once a minute for an hour, and 95% of results must be at or below 100 ms. Cumulative outages over 48 hours in a year must be reported. Results go to the state in the USAC CSV format, one file per technology and speed tier, with each test tied to a location's BSL Fabric ID and your subscriber ID.
Why do your billing and subscriber records matter?
Almost every BEAD report depends on one thing: an accurate record of which address has which service, at which speed tier, since when, on which equipment. That is not separate grant data. It is the same data your billing, provisioning and support systems produce every day.
- Testing samples are drawn from locations with active subscribers, so your subscriber-to-location mapping has to be right.
- Each test is tied to a BSL Fabric ID and a subscriber ID, so every service address needs a Fabric ID.
- Results are split by speed tier and technology, so plans in billing have to match what is provisioned on the network.
- Availability reporting counts outages from the first customer report, so support tickets and outage records have to carry timestamps and locations.
- Installation and low-cost-plan obligations are proven from orders, installs and eligibility records.
When those records live in separate spreadsheets, every reporting cycle turns into a reconciliation project. When they sit on one subscriber record, a report becomes a query.
| ID | Event | Detail | Status | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #48201 | Auto-suspend | Past due · 4 days · policy DUNN-04 | Suspended | −1 service |
| #48202 | Auto-reconnect | ACH payment cleared · $74.00 | Reconnected | 2 min |
| #48203 | Cycle invoicing | Taxes, USF and E911 applied · emailed | Issued | 2,418 docs |
| #48204 | Payment reconciled | Paid via reminder link · matched to invoice | Cleared | +$74.00 |
How do you get your data BEAD-ready?
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
Every service address carries its FCC BSL Fabric ID Tests, locations served and BDC filings all key on it. | Tests, locations served and BDC filings all key on it. |
Each subscriber's plan matches the speed tier provisioned on the network Performance compliance is measured per committed speed tier. | Performance compliance is measured per committed speed tier. |
You can pull active subscribers per project area, tier and technology The testing sample comes from active subscribers in each state. | The testing sample comes from active subscribers in each state. |
CPE can run or report tests remotely NTIA lists TR-069/TR-369, gateway software or on-site measurement devices as testing methods. | NTIA lists TR-069/TR-369, gateway software or on-site measurement devices as testing methods. |
Outages and customer reports are timestamped and tied to locations Availability reporting starts the outage clock at the first customer report. | Availability reporting starts the outage clock at the first customer report. |
Installs record request date and completion date Standard installation means service within 10 business days of a request. | Standard installation means service within 10 business days of a request. |
Low-cost plan enrollment and eligibility are tracked The low-cost service option runs through the 10-year federal interest period. | The low-cost service option runs through the 10-year federal interest period. |
Keep the documentation of your testing methods as well. NTIA requires subgrantees to document methods and parameters, publish their measurement report on their website, retain the data for inspection and certify its accuracy.
Where does Inerxia fit?
To be direct: Inerxia is not a BEAD reporting tool, and it does not generate BEAD or SAR reports. Sonar has deeper US grant and BEAD reporting tooling today, and we say so on our comparison page. If your main constraint is grant reporting, weigh that seriously.
Inerxia's role is upstream. It keeps the data those reports are built from clean and in one place. The Operating System holds subscribers, service addresses, plans, installed equipment, tickets and OLT/GPON, RADIUS and TR-069 provisioning on one subscriber record. Subscriber Intelligence clusters calls and tickets by service location, which shows where outages and service problems concentrate.
Sources
Checked September 23, 2026. BEAD guidance changes. Use the current versions from NTIA and your state broadband office.
- NTIA, BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice (June 6, 2025)
- NTIA, BEAD Program: Performance Measures for BEAD Last-Mile Networks, Policy Notice Primer (September 2025)
- NTIA, BEAD Frequently Asked Questions and Answers, Version 22 (June 2026)
- NTIA, “Benefit of the Bargain” program announcements
- FCC, Broadband Data Collection: Information for Filers