State, Territory and Local Governments

State Broadband Leaders Network

The NTIA's BroadbandUSA program convenes and facilitates the State Broadband Leaders Network (SBLN), a community of practitioners who work on state broadband initiatives. SBLN participants share priorities and best practices and discuss emerging telecommunications policy issues. The network also provides a forum to strengthen policy and program connections among states, local jurisdictions and federal agencies.  

Local Coordination

States and territories are required to coordinate with a variety of stakeholder groups on the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) and Digital Equity (DE) programs and must document their local coordination and outreach activities. This involves providing a detailed description of their efforts to engage Tribal and local governments, community groups, industry, union and worker organizations, and underrepresented populations (among others) in their BEAD Five-Year Action Plan, Initial Proposal, and Final Proposal. States and territories are also strongly encouraged to integrate their local coordination efforts with any outreach and coordination efforts required pursuant to the Digital Equity Act.

NTIA supported state/territory broadband offices in meeting this requirement by co-hosting multiple day-long workshops to convene key stakeholders from within the state/territory. These workshops were intended to both open lines of communication between the state and territories and local stakeholders and establish a process for ongoing engagement and coordination with them in the development of these plans.