How far could the money go? Update with new Enhanced ACAM numbers

We could theoretically reach 94% of the Unserved and Underserved locations nationally. We only miss 750,000 locations. The biggest misses by percentage are Iowa (61% of Unserved and Underserved), Idaho (66%), Illinois, Kansas, and California (all 71%), Minnesota (76%), and Colorado and Nebraska (about 80%). I find it helpful to think about this as a simple math problem: how far the money might go can be estimated by multiplying the number of locations that need service times the average cost to serve them. There are 11.9 million Unserved and Underserved locations nationally. About 2.4 million locations are Unserved or Underserved and are part of the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program, and broadband will be deployed as part of that program. Also, according to my recent estimates, 1.3 million locations would be served by broadband providers under the FCC’s Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) program. Together, that’s 31% of the remaining digital divide that will get broadband through a program other than the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. And it doesn’t factor in the billions of dollars that went into broadband through programs the Covid recovery bills administered by the Treasury Department. That leaves 8.3 million locations nationally that we need to reach with the BEAD program.