Missouri BEAD funds a testament to underserved population

Missouri was among the lucky winners of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, receiving the third highest allocation at $1.74 billion. But whether that amount will be more than enough or just right to cover all unserved and underserved locations is “the ultimate question,” said BJ Tanksley, director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development. “I think the thing about this is it also is a call to us, there’s just a lot of work to be done across the state.” Tanksley said that while Missouri “always predicted” it would receive a relatively high BEAD allotment, the state found over $300 million was allocated due to “the proportion of extreme high-cost locations.” He estimates roughly 300,000 locations in Missouri are “still lacking quality broadband service” and a “good portion” of those are considered high-cost areas, particularly in the south-central part of the state where the Mark Twain National Forest is located. “You have large areas of public land mixed with lighter populations between those public lands,” said Tanksley. “We don’t have necessarily mountains but it’s got lots of hills and they’re all heavily wooded for the most part. So those areas will be tough to get to.” Other areas that will likely be difficult to reach are the Western and Northern parts of the state, closer to the Iowa border.