BEAD, NTIA Negotiations, and Serving Rural Areas

“[Astound has] been awarded a lot of BEAD projects in the state of Washington as well as Oregon, and that is going to drive a lot of our expansion in the next two to three years.” That’s what Astound Senior Vice President of Operations Jared Sonne, who handles the company’s West Coast operations, said when asked about the provider’s recent provisional wins for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Astound has been provisionally awarded about $112 million in BEAD awards in Oregon, $166 million in Texas, and more than $100 million in Washington (largely as part of a consortium called Northwest Open Access Network). “Without the BEAD assistance, [these projects] are just not economically feasible for us — or really any other provider — to try to go it alone and make the financials work,” he said. Astound is working closely with the state broadband offices as the states negotiate with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) about cost thresholds.