State

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter announced that the state will award $101.6 million in funding as part of the second round of broadband and digital opportunity grants. These investments will provide last-mile broadband access and digital opportunity programs to more than 97,000 Tennesseans across 75 counties.

Amazon is applying for federal funding for broadband Internet providers. And that, according to the CEO of equipment supplier Calix, shows that Amazon is "the wolf in sheep's clothing." "They are applying for BEAD to compete with all of our customers," said Calix CEO Michael Weening. Amazon, Weening said, is "the enemy of every broadband provider out there." BEAD is the Biden administration's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, and it's designed to funnel $42.45 billion through US states for broadband networks in rural areas.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Minnesota, allowing the state to request access to more than $12 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Minnesota will use the $12,033,288 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Connecticut, allowing the state to request access to more than $9 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Connecticut will use the $9,183,114 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

Copper Valley Telecom (CVT) plans to deploy gigabit fiber-to-the-home broadband service to the village of Tatitlek (AK) and surrounding communities of the Chugach Census Area of Alaska. The project on the southern coast of the state in the Prince William Sound area is being financed with a $16.5 million grant from the U.S.

There has been a lot of chatter in the broadband industry recently, particularly as the election approaches, about whether the speed with which Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding is rolling out is too slow. But Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, said the timeline doesn’t bother her too much. “There’s been enough money flowing into the system that I’m not concerned that it’s taken three years.” Bloomfield named two primary reasons why the BEAD funding process so far has been worth the time spent.

For Nevada, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program will essentially be the third and final phase of a plan to make high-speed service available to everyone in the state, explained Brian Mitchell, broadband director for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT). That final phase will be funded not only through the $417 million in BEAD funding coming to the state but also through other sources. Phase Three of the three-phase High-Speed Nevada initiative aims to make high-speed broadband available to the 53,000 unserv

As states begin to receive their allocations from the $42 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment or BEAD program, Florida is leading the way in preparing the workforce needed for new high-speed internet networks. State officials were quick to convene industry stakeholders as part of their broadband planning process last year, and the state’s BEAD proposal has an unusually detailed section on workforce readiness.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from New Mexico, allowing the state to request access to more than $8 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  The state will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

New Mexico: $8,673,975

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from California, allowing the state to request access to more than $70 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The state will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

California: $70,226,453