Michael Santorelli

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program was designed to close the digital divide in the U.S., but the size and shape of that divide have changed dramatically since Congress created the program in November 2021. Private investment and other broadband programs have continued to connect locations, while BEAD, the largest-ever broadband grant program, has followed a circuitous path across two very different presidential administrations to finally get to the point of being able to dole out funds.

The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program will fund construction of broadband infrastructure to unserved and underserved locations across the United States. But before construction can begin, internet service providers must first clear federal environmental and historic-preservation review, including National Environmental Policy Act, and then navigate a broader thicket of environmental, cultural, land-use, right-of-way, easement, and jurisdictional permitting requirements.

We analyzed the Federal Communications Commission's latest Serviceable Location Fabric (v9) and the latest Broadband Data Collection (BDC) data release (2025-12-31, which uses Fabric v8) to see how many locations awarded  Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds for satellite service are either (1) no longer included in the Fabric as broadband-serviceable locations or (2) are already “served.” About 35 percent of locations awarded BEAD funds for satellite service are likely no longer in need (42% if unlicensed fixed wireless is included).

The New York City Public Advocate’s Office recently released an “Internet for All” Plan that, among many other things, recommends spending more than $2 billion to build a city-owned open-access municipal fiber network across the five boroughs. The Plan also suggests that the city explore ways to potentially seize infrastructure owned by a private electric utility, Con Edison, via eminent domain to support this initiative.

The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program is driving significant private-sector broadband investment, with ISPs contributing more than $11 billion in matching funds. ISP funding comprises about 37 percent of total project cost, substantially exceeding the program’s 25 percent matching requirement. Match commitments scale with provider size: established national ISPs match 49 percent of project costs, compared to 28 percent for small/regional ISPs.

The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program will fund construction of broadband infrastructure to nearly 4 million unserved and underserved locations across the United States. A significant portion of this build-out will use aerial fiber, which requires attachment to utility poles. Planned aerial deployment totals about 188,287 route-miles, or 41.8 percent of total BEAD fiber miles. Utility poles are plentiful.

After more than three years, Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants finally appear to be poised for award by the 56 states and territories that received a proportionate share of the more than $42 billion available to bolster broadband availability. We use Federal Communications Commission and BEAD data to determine the relative size of service territory expansion that will be underwritten with federal grants. To do so, we calculate an ‘expansion ratio’ by dividing the number of BEAD awarded locations by FCC-reported locations.

Using the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Funding Map and state Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program Final Proposal data, the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute estimates that approximately 1.1 million locations without 100/20 Mbps service will remain unfunded after BEAD awards. 

Despite its aim of universal service – or as close to universal service as possible – it appears unavoidable that some locations will remain unserved after BEAD. Whether BEAD is deemed successful or not will hinge on the number of these locations. If there are 1 million unserved–or even 100,000–post-BEAD, then BEAD will not have achieved the mission that everyone understood it to have: pushing broadband to as many people as possible and finally achieving universal or near-universal availability.