Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

The bulk of Google Fiber's buildouts is focused on cities and towns that are getting broadband service from incumbent cable operators and telephone companies.

Republican lawmakers voted to eliminate Governor Tony Evers' (D-WI) proposed $750 million investment in broadband, saying the state would wait for an upcoming influx of federal broadband funding instead. The move by Republicans on the budget committee would mark the first time in a decade that the legislature hasn't set aside funding for broadband expansion. It comes at a time when the federal government is expected to spend between $700 million and $1.1 billion on broadband expansion in Wisconsin as part of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The new version of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map makes a lot of progress on areas with fixed wireless or DSL coverage at speeds of exactly 25/3. Of the 2 million locations that were previously deemed Underserved 42% have moved to Unserved. Thirty-three percent are still Underserved, and 20% have moved to Served at 100/20 or better. Looking specifically at North Carolina, which had almost 10% of these locations (almost 200,000), we can see part of the story.

According to the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map, there are 8.3 million Unserved locations in the U.S. The FCC published “LBR Wireless” files for 41 states. As I rushed to download the data, I didn’t know what that meant as they hadn’t ever published them before, so I skipped them. I now know that to mean “Licensed by Rule” wireless.

The Federal Communications Commission released Version 2 of the National Broadband Map. Three key takeaways from the latest data: 

Congress appropriated $65 billion through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to close the digital divide and ensure universal access to reliable, high-speed, and affordable broadband across the US. The cornerstone—$42.45 billion—rests with the implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which entrusts execution and deployment of the resources to state governments. To maximize the opportunity that BEAD presents and to close the digital divide once and for all, we recommend the following 11 points:

US Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) successfully pushed the Federal Communications Commission to update its National Broadband Map to more accurately reflect Nevada’s current broadband needs, which is critical for the allocation of funding for high-speed internet from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's (IIJA) $42 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. A previous, deeply flawed map misrepresented the high-speed internet coverage in Nevada and would have caused the state to lose out on potentially millions of dollars in BEAD funding.

On first look, the new Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map seems to be a step in the right direction. For example, in Alaska, a known problem area, the number of locations and the estimated amount of money allocated increase significantly. But Michigan is another story. Michigan has 71,139 fewer Unserved locations on the new map versus the old one, by far the biggest decrease in the 50 states.

The Federal Communications Commission released an updated National Broadband Map. This is the version of the map that will be used by the NTIA to allocate $42.5 billion in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Overall, as of December 31, 2022, there are 114,537,044 Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) in the country (including territories). That’s a net addition of 1 million BSLs. 7.6% of the BSLs are Unserved, which is 8.67 million, up 808,677 in the 50 states. 3.11% of the BSLs are Underserved, or 3.55 million nationally. There are some surprises.

Across the country, broadband advocates and representatives are crunching numbers to figure out how to implement an often under-examined piece of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program puzzle: What does digital equity look like? Passed alongside BEAD as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Digital Equity Act (DEA) provides $2.75 billion dollars that will be parsed between states and territories to help them implement digital equity plans.