MiHi outlines BEAD round‑1 results, defends scoring change and reports termination of digital equity grant

Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer at the Michigan High Speed Internet Office (MiHi), told the Michigan House Communications & Technology Committee that MiHi completed its first round of project applications for the federal BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) program and is performing deconfliction of overlapping proposals.

MiHi is implementing BEAD to bring high‑speed fiber to unserved locations across the state. Frederick said the office received 394 project applications from 34 applicants that together included more than 194,000 unique BEAD‑eligible locations; before deconfliction, the projects covered about 476,000 BEAD‑eligible locations. He said the applications requested roughly $2.4 billion in subsidy and $1.15 billion in private matching funds against $3.557 billion in total project costs reported by applicants.

Why it matters: BEAD is the largest federal broadband infrastructure program to date; Michigan's allocation and how the state manages scoring, deconfliction and later rounds will determine which rural and underserved households get funded connections and when.

MiHi context and actions

Frederick described MiHi's other programs, including a $238 million “Robin” program intended to bring fiber to about 72,000 homes and businesses (MiHi reported it has passed about 20,000 locations, or 27 percent of the target). He said MiHi analyzed the FCC's broadband serviceable location (BSL) fabric and removed approximately 16,000 erroneously identified locations from BEAD eligibility in Michigan after review and provider evidence.

On the first‑round results, Frederick said applicants proposed projects ranging from three locations up to more than 40,000 locations and project costs ranging from about $1,400 to $300 million. Using the submitted subsidy requests, Frederick calculated a rough per‑location subsidy request of about $5,053 and said that, after deconfliction, MiHi estimates roughly $600 million will remain available for a planned second application round.

Scoring change, outreach and timeline

Several lawmakers raised concerns about a MiHi decision to lower a minimum scoring threshold for applicants during the first application window. Chair Green and Representative Shriver asked why the change was not more clearly communicated and whether public hearings were held. Frederick said MiHi received the suggestion from Internet service providers during public office hours held weekly during the application window and that the office submitted the change to NTIA, which treated it as a nonmaterial change and approved it after about a month. Frederick told the committee, “we wanted to make sure that we had participation in the program because we have to get to all of those places,” adding the change was intended to avoid excluding providers from applying in very expensive, hard‑to‑build areas.

Frederick acknowledged the communication gap and said he would “work to better communicate that” in the future.

Digital equity grant termination

Frederick told the committee MiHi had received an award of $20.5 million under the NTIA's digital equity capacity grant program (referred to in testimony as the “Mitten program”), but last Friday the office received a termination of award and is working to close out that grant. Frederick said the terminated grant had been expected to support regional digital navigators and serve an estimated 200,000 veterans, rural residents, aging individuals and low‑income households via training, device distribution and other services.

Next steps and timeline

Frederick said MiHi is completing reviews and scoring for round 1 and expects to open a second round of BEAD project applications in mid‑summer; states were allowed a 90‑day extension from NTIA for their final proposals, pushing final proposal submission later into the fall. MiHi will wait for any additional NTIA policy guidance before launching round 2, Frederick said, because federal policy changes—rumored for mid‑June—could alter requirements for the program.

Ending

Committee members offered to assist MiHi in communicating with federal partners; Frederick agreed to return with updates. Frederick repeatedly urged that the second application round will create another opportunity for providers who did not apply in round 1 to participate.