From BEAD to Buildout: Comparing BEAD Awards to ISP Footprints

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. This is equivalent to the percent expansion of a given internet service provider’s (ISP) territory. This analysis, the first in a series aimed at getting to know the BEAD subgrantees, offers essential context for understanding the scale of the awards won by ISPs of different sizes. Intuitively, ISPs with smaller expansion ratios may find it more manageable to build BEAD-funded networks given their experience. Conversely, ISPs with a higher expansion ratio may encounter difficulty in expanding their service territory at such a large scale since they lack the bona fides of more established providers.