Official Site of The State of New Jersey
The State of New Jersey has been allocated over $263 million as part of the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. This funding aims to improve access to affordable, high-speed, reliable internet in unserved and underserved communities across New Jersey, among other activities. The State’s plans for competitively awarding this funding are described in two documents:
Download Initial Proposal v1 (Approved) Download BEAD v1 attachments (Approved)
Download Initial Proposal v2 (Approved) Download BEAD v2 attachments (Approved)
Notice: Opportunity for Broadband Service Providers to Evidence BEAD Classification Changes
In accordance with NTIA’s June 2025 BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice, the New Jersey Office of Broadband Connectivity (OBC) is providing the opportunity for broadband service providers using specific technologies operating in the state to claim and evidence a reclassification of locations from eligible for BEAD Program funding to ineligible. This opportunity is only for providers of HFC, fiber-to-the-premises, licensed terrestrial fixed wireless, or licensed by-rule terrestrial fixed wireless service. Providers of unlicensed terrestrial fixed wireless had the opportunity to respond to a prior notice.
Providers can only submit claims and evidence for locations served by their own networks and now show as served in the Version 6 Fabric BDC availability dataset. Responses must be received by 5:00 PM ET on July 29, 2025.
Providers should submit clear, concise, and robust evidence. Given the time constraints, OBC does not envision a curing period.
If you have questions, contact broadband@bpu.nj.gov and include “BEAD-Evidence-Reclassification” in the subject line of the email.
Instructions:
OBC has provided a CSV called “locations_for_served_info_request.csv” of locations that the Federal Communications Commission Broadband Data Collection (BDC) data states as having access to broadband service with speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload with latency of less than or equal to 100 ms, or 1 Gig Symmetrical if location is a CAI.
Each row in the provided CSV represents one such Location and contains one pre-filled columns. The four other columns are discussed in Step 1 further below.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
|
location_id |
Identifier for the Location, as used in the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric |
|
cai |
Will be marked as “yes” if the location is considered a Community Anchor Institution, otherwise “no” |
Step 1. Mark Locations for Which You Have Evidence of Service
Download a copy of the CSV linked above. For each Location you have evidence of service meeting the requirements, please mark the following columns accordingly:
| Column name | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
served |
Yes |
Enter “1” if you believe and have evidence that you already serve the Location with speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, with less than or equal to 100 ms of latency. |
|
technology |
Yes |
Indicate the type of technology you use to serve this location: • “40” Coaxial Cable / HFC • “50” Optical Carrier / Fiber to the premises • “71” Licensed Terrestrial Fixed Wireless • “72” Licensed by-Rule Terrestrial Fixed Wireless If multiple, only select one technology. |
|
evidence_type |
Yes |
Indicate the type of evidence you can provide OBC to substantiate the above claim. Enter: • “P” photographic evidence • “S” Evidence of subscription (service record) • “N” network diagram • “T” network speed test • “X” other evidence |
|
file_name |
Yes |
Name of the file submitted as evidence for this location. |
|
notes |
No, optional |
Include any notes required to help substantiate your response |
Step 2. Collect and Label Evidence of Service
For each Location marked with served = 1 in the CSV, collect the evidence marked in the evidence_type column and place it in a folder called “Evidence”.
The file name of each piece of evidence should begin with the location_id to which it belongs if the evidence is only for a single location. For instance, two pieces of evidence for location_id = 1234 might be named: “1234 example text.jpg” and “1234 - lorem ipsum.xlsx”. If a single piece of evidence applies to more than one Location, include the evidence only once and reference the file in the file_name field of all Locations to which it applies. In such cases, location_id does not need to be included in the file name of the evidence itself.
If the submitted evidence is a PDF file, the PDF must be searchable.
Step 3. Package and Upload Materials
Create a folder named as “[Provider_Name]_Evidence”. Inside of that folder place the edited CSV from Step 1, “Evidence” folder from Step 2. The folder structure should appear as follows:
BroadbandCo_Evidence
├──── locations_for_served_info_request.csv
└──── Evidence
├──── 1234 speed test.pdf
├──── 5678 speed test.pdf
├──── 9101 photo.jpg
├──── network diagram A for 20 locations.pdf
└──── etc.
Then, compress the folder and upload the zip file to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) External Access Portal (e-Filing) as outlined in the BPU e-Filing System Walkthrough and reference docket number TO25020078. Please name the zip file as “[Provider_Name]_Evidence.zip”.
Step 4. Email OBC
Send an email to broadband@bpu.nj.gov and include “BEAD-Evidence-Reclassification” in the subject line of the email.
Deployment Subgrantee Selection Process
[IN PROGRESS] The application window is now open, following NTIA's approval of New Jersey’s IP Correction Request. Resources are available on the “Resources for NJ BEAD Applicants” webpage.
BEAD Program Restructuring: ULFW and BEAD Location Eligibility
[COMPLETE] Consistent with NTIA’s BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice Section 4 (published June 6th, 2025), New Jersey invited unlicensed fixed wireless providers to submit evidence that BEAD funding is not required for locations they serve. This period was open for seven (7) calendar days, as required by the Policy Notice, and closed on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
BEAD Challenge Process
[COMPLETE] The BEAD Challenge Process allowed eligible participants to submit data regarding the broadband status of locations across New Jersey, as required by federal BEAD guidelines. The state’s Challenge Process ran from November 4, 2024, to March 17, 2025, and the results received NTIA approval on May 2, 2025.
Learn More
BEAD Five-Year Plan
[COMPLETE] Download 5-Year action plan
