3 Easy Steps To Meet Your BEAD Performance Testing Requirements
Broadband expansion is entering its most critical phase: turning billions in funding into real connections for communities.
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program—alongside other funding initiatives like ACAM and RDOF—requires broadband service providers (BSPs) to prove that networks built with public dollars meet rigorous performance standards. That means measuring and reporting speed, latency, and reliability to ensure subscribers receive the quality of service they were promised.
While states will oversee BEAD reporting compliance, performance testing will follow established National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) practices with a majority rooted in FCC requirements. Timelines are in progress, and testing readiness is key to success—making early preparation not just smart, but essential.
The stakes? Significant funding is on the line, and failure to comply could cost providers dearly. The good news: There are practical steps BSPs can take now to stay ahead.
How To Get Ahead on Critical NTIA Performance Testing Requirements
The key to maintaining compliance is understanding your program requirements. Here are three steps to get ahead of broadband performance testing.
Get familiar with the testing requirements. Ensure you fully understand all the testing requirements for the specific funding program you’re participating in. How many and which subscribers will you need to test? What are the timelines for pre-testing and official testing? What performance levels will you need to meet for speed and latency? How do you submit your reports to your state?
Understand the testing deadlines for your funding program. Knowing when to conduct your testing is critical, particularly if you’re participating in multiple funding programs. Stay on top of the deadlines for completing your annual performance tests and uploading the results.
Beware of penalties and know how to avoid them. Non-compliance with NTIA performance testing requirements can have significant ramifications. For instance, with RDOF, in the worst-case scenario (when you’re less than 55 percent compliant), as much as 25 percent of your monthly support will be withheld. Even during pre-testing, failure to submit your results will result in 5 percent of your funding being withheld. Be sure to learn early on what these non-compliance penalties are for your state/s so that you can avoid a potential impact.
Partner for Success With Speed and Performance Insights
Ensuring your performance testing practices are optimized—and analyzing the results effectively—can be complex and time-consuming. For BEAD, states will require you to run a series of testing based on variety of parameters, which can be rigorous. As an example, the FCC requires that you run an upload and download speed test on 10 percent or up to 50 subscribers per funded speed tier per hour, six hours per day, for a seven-day testing period. In addition, on the same test groups, the BSP must also conduct a latency test each minute for the duration of the testing period. For one speed tier, that can be over 130,000 discrete tests per quarterly reporting period.
How do you ensure the numbers you’re reporting meet the compliance requirements, so you don’t risk getting penalized? That’s where Calix can help with expert tools and guidance.
Calix provides BSPs with a platform integrated approach to performance testing that seamlessly connects funding compliant systems with the testing tools and insights to simplify testing operations. Calix Unlimited Subscriber systems are enabled with an embedded test endpoint to support BEAD and on-demand speed and latency testing. These systems integrate with Calix Speed and Performance Insights and together with Calix’s extensive experience in FCC funding compliance, Calix is positioned to readily support the BEAD program requirements when BSPs begin their performance testing and reporting for BEAD compliance.
Broadband performance testing becomes simple when you have a reliable framework, so you can focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional experiences for your subscribers and building value for your communities.
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