Idaho Office of Broadband Update: August 22, 2025
The Idaho Office of Broadband and Idaho Broadband Advisory Board have the following information to share with the State’s partners and stakeholders.
Idaho BEAD Program
Idaho’s Funding Application phase closed on 7/29/25.
Since the closing, the IOB/MBI Teams have been diligently working on application curing, evaluation, deconfliction and negotiations. In total, 23/40 eligible applicants submitted 156 applications.
The biggest news of the last 3-weeks would be the IOB’s efforts to work with NTIA on an extension of the 9/4/25 deadline. After conversations with, and direction from, the IBAB Chairs, the IOB submitted an extension request last week and asked for an additional 21-days.
The NTIA has granted the waiver request and the State’s new NTIA deadline is 9/25/25. This will allow the IOB to run a targeted “2nd mini grant round” to increase participation and competition in APAs that did not receive applications from multiple technology types. See new APA/BSL Template here.
As a result, the BEAD funding application portal will reopen on Tuesday, 8/26/25 @ 12:00pm MT and close on 9/2/25 at 12:00pm MT. The IOB will hold an open office hour on Monday, August 25th @ 10am-11am MT. Register here. Applications will only be accepted for predetermined APAs and not the entire state. See the updated “Round Two: Application Project Area and BSL Template” to see available APAs on the Idaho BEAD Application Project Areas 4.0 Map.
Further, there will likely be no opportunity for curing, so application materials and templates must be filled out correctly. As a courtesy, the MBI Team will offer 1-on-1 opportunities next week for applicants to walk through the APA/BSL Template. If interested, please email IdahoBEAD@mbakerintl.com to make an appointment.
Idaho Broadband Advisory Board
Next Meeting: No meeting currently scheduled. IBAB meeting materials can be viewed here.
Other News
Stay informed, engaged and educated by monitoring Link Up Idaho. Thanks so much for everyone’s support. As always, please reach out with any questions, comments or concerns.