Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

Charter has now won $700 million in broadband funding since its big win in the 2018 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, said Jessica Fischer, the company’s chief financial officer. The funding will go toward buildouts to 300,000 locations, Fischer said. The gross cost of the buildouts for which Charter has won funding will be $1.7 billion, which suggests that Charter will contribute matching funds of about $1 billion for the builds. The buildout cost per passing to Charter will be $3,200, Fischer said. The company completed 68,000 subsidized rural passings this quarter, she noted

The No Home Left Offline Coalition has written to all 50 state governors, urging them to contact their congressional delegation to take action on renewing the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Millions of dollars are coming into Mississippi to get more families connected to high-speed internet. But there are still major gaps in the broadband coverage map. “We had the little Wi-Fi hotspot. But in order to use the Wi-Fi hotspot, you have to have a cell phone signal. And a lot of times we didn’t have a good cell phone signal where we were. So, it just washed everything completely out.

When Texas was awarded $3.3 billion in federal money toward expanding broadband infrastructure across the state, government leaders and telecommunication companies celebrated the news. With the federal funds, coupled with $1.5 billion from the state’s wallet, rural and underserved Texas communities finally saw a chance to catch up with technology in the rest of the country.

While we recently broke down Montana's Draft Digital Opportunity Plan and the state's vision of digital equity, the Montana Broadband Office (MBO) has also made public its draft Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Five-Year Action Plan.

The world is facing a pressing need for a skilled workforce that can meet the demands of the 21st-century economy. That’s where workforce development comes in. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has created the Telecommunications Training and Workforce Development Best Practice Checklist to help support Eligible Entities as they’re developing their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) workforce plans. Verizon and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have collective bargaining agreements in place that, among other things, provide for high-

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) presented a draft five-year plan to connect the state’s unserved with broadband using the $1.86 billion it received through the federal government’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. But the CPUC’s plan comes with a warning that the total $4 billion available in state and federal broadband funding won't be enough to completely bridge the digital divide in California. There is a significant need for broadband across all of California, said the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association’s (WISPA) state advocacy manag

The Federal Communications Commission released a Report and Order creating the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model program which extends subsidies for rural broadband providers for 10 additional years (beyond the remaining 5 years) at a cost of $1.27 to $1.33 billion annually to the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. In exchange, any ISP that elects this subsidy would be required to deploy 100/20 broadband to everyone in its service area.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced how much Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding each of the 50 states would be allocated. The answer varies from state to state, but one thing they all have in common is that Volume 1 and Volume 2 of their initial proposals are due December 27, 2023. Once NTIA approves the proposal, the state will get 20 percent of its BEAD funding. Volume 1 must include: Existing broadband funding, Unserved and underserved locations, Community anchor institutions, Challenge process plans.

BroadbandOhio, a division of the Ohio Department of Development, released for public comment Volume I of the state's Initial Proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.