The federal government just allocated to states a slew of broadband funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, but states are still dishing grants for their own programs. Fierce took a look at the states that recently announced funding awards, finding they collectively doled out over $364 million to providers.
Florida
Florida awarded more than $247 million to 63 projects across 43 counties. The projects plan to connect over 59,000 unserved and underserved homes, businesses, farms and community anchor institutions.
The release doesn’t name the providers that won the awards, but TDS Telecom said on Thursday it received around $1.8 million to build fiber to 3,574 unserved locations in the cities of Havana and Quincy, Florida.
The biggest award (~$24.8 million) went to the town of Jay and over a dozen unincorporated communities in Santa Rosa County. That project will bring symmetrical 1-gig fiber to 2,343 unserved locations.
All 63 projects indicated plans to build fiber.
Indiana
Indiana’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs doled out nearly $900,000 to nine providers, who will deploy broadband to 216 addresses across 23 counties. The money was part of the sixth round of the Indiana Connectivity Program.
Charter Communications was the biggest name of the awardees, though it received $4,800 to build to just a single address in Floyd County. Indiana-based PSC Fiber bagged the highest amount of funding ($360,898) to cover 95 addresses, followed by electric cooperative Miami-Cass REMC ($278,400), which will build broadband to 58 addresses.
Indiana didn’t disclose which technology the grantees will use for their projects. The winning providers are contributing over $2.1 million in matching funds and they must complete their projects within nine months of the contract start date.
Additionally, the state this week announced applications are now open for the fourth and final round of Indiana’s Next Level Connections. According to the release, the round will provide a maximum of $5 million per grant to fund projects.
North Carolina
North Carolina this month awarded $80 million in Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants, which will help expand internet to over 25,000 households and 862 businesses in 33 counties.
Charter scored a total of eight grants to deploy broadband infrastructure in Beaufort, Burke, Caldwell, Caswell, Catawba, Montgomery, Moore and Pitt counties.
Other notable winners include AT&T, which received grants to build in Alamance and Chatham counties, as well as Brightspeed and Lumos, which will expand broadband in four and three counties, respectively.
Funding amounts for each provider were not disclosed. Grantees are required to provide service with speeds at a minimum of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream.
North Dakota
Using money from the Capital Projects Fund, North Dakota dished out 11 grants worth $37 million to seven providers.
Five of the seven grantees are North Dakota-based ISPs, with Halstad Telephone Company also serving Minnesota and Nemont Telephone Cooperative based in Montana.
While North Dakota Information Technology (NDIT) didn’t say how much each provider received, the awardees plan to deliver fiber to more than 2,100 homes and businesses. Speeds for each project must reliably meet or exceed symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps.