The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program process is chugging along, as roughly half of the 56 states and territories have now released deployment plans and grant awards. While fiber remains the preferred technology, it’s a cable operator that’s amassed the most funds so far.
Comcast came out on top of the other large wireline operators, scoring $745 million to cover approximately 127,000 locations across 25 states, per New Street Research’s analysis. The company plans to use a mix of fiber and hybrid-fiber coax (HFC) for its BEAD bids.
Given deploying HFC is cheaper than end-to-end fiber, NSR expects more cable companies to participate in the program. Charter meanwhile received just $160 million for 35,000 locations, though the operator has said it intends to spend less on BEAD than it did for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) projects.
The Minnesota Draft BEAD Proposal include the following for Comcast…
- Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC
Number of projects: 3
BEAD support: $31,849,085.18
Local Match: $23,892,462.90
Locations: 2760
Counties: Scott, Washington, Wright