Internet Service Provider Upgrades in Front of BEAD

I’m working with several small cities that were recently notified that the existing cable company plans to upgrade its network. In these cities, the cable company still operates a DOCSIS 3.0 network. The networks have download speeds a little faster than 100 Megabits per second (Mbps), and upload speeds are under 10 Mbps. These cities are currently considered to be underserved and are eligible for BEAD grants. I talked to the State Broadband Offices in several states about the issue of announced upgrades coming just in front of the final BEAD map challenges. I was told that this is suddenly a common issue, and they are seeing claims of upcoming upgrades across their state. Part of this issue comes is due to the FCC mapping rules about how providers are allowed to claim broadband speeds. Internet service providers are allowed to declare marketing speeds instead of actual speeds. If your city or county is currently BEAD eligible and you are told by providers that upgrades are coming soon, you should talk to your state broadband office. The claims of upgrades could be real. But the worst possible scenario is for an internet service provider to claim an upcoming upgrade to eliminate the BEAD funding and then make no upgrade.