Missouri

Conexon Connect submitted compliance reports for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund locations in Mississippi, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona, Tennessee, and Illinois. Conexon Connect delayed its RDOF buildout in some states until state broadband offices finalized Broadband, Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) Program funding decisions. This delay, the company believes, was prudent because Conexon Connect’s network would require modification to account for any new BEAD-funded areas.

T-Mobile has entered into definitive agreements to form two strategic fiber joint ventures (JVs): a 50/50 partnership with Oak Hill Capital to acquire and combine GoNetspeed and Greenlight Networks, and a separate 50/50 joint venture with Wren House to acquire i3 Broadband.

The promise and peril of artificial intelligence have been a recurring theme for Missouri lawmakers as they debate safeguards on campaign advertisements, companion chatbots, and mental health therapy that use the technology. But efforts to enact regulations in Missouri stalled in the state Senate amid fears the legislation could jeopardize nearly $900 million in remaining federal broadband funds for rural internet expansion.

Midwest FiberPath says it will build a 1,200-mile multi-conduit long-haul backbone intended to support the increased traffic created by artificial intelligence in east-west and north-south directions in the Midwest. It will provide what it describes as next-generation carrier mesh diversity. The multi-conduit design will enable diverse carrier deployments within a single controlled right-of-way.

Midwest Data Center is a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund winner that was required to serve 40% of its 1,410 awarded locations by December 31, 2025. Midwest did not meet such milestone. Midwest previously submitted a Petition for Waiver of 40% Deployment Milestone Until June 30, 2026 on November 11, 2025. The Petition for Waiver explained that delays in the US Department of Agriculture ReConnect program were causing delays in Midwest’s planned infrastructure deployment.

Brightspeed acquired Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) obligations and support in nine states on October 3, 2022, as part of the acquisition of Lumen Technologies' incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiaries in twenty states. Brightspeed committed to fulfilling those obligations in connection with the Wireline Competition Bureau’s approval of the transfer of control.

On September 19, 2025, the Missouri Department of Economic Development submitted its final proposal for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. The proposal, which requires approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, would award $792 million to 42 internet service providers in Missouri to serve 213,803 locations.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau denied Mercury Wireless Indiana, Mercury Wireless Kansas, and Mercury Broadband’s (collectively Mercury) request for waiver of the Commission’s rules, which governs the recovery of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support when recipients do not fulfill the program’s buildout requirements. The Bureau finds that Mercury did not demonstrate that good cause supports reducing the required support recovery for Mercury’s RDOF defaults in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Mercury originated in Kansas and