Louisiana to award 95% of BEAD funds for fiber

Louisiana on Monday became the first state to award funding from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, with 95% of the state's funds set to go to fiber providers including AT&T and Conexon.

Nicole Ferraro, Editor, host of 'The Divide' podcast

November 19, 2024

3 Min Read
 Optical fiber with green light glow
Over 90% of Louisiana's BEAD-funded fiber plant will be buried underground, said the state.(Source: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo)

Louisiana will award the vast majority of its funding from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to fiber providers, according to the state's final BEAD proposal released on Monday, November 18.

The final proposal, which is open for public comment through December 10, officially makes Louisiana the first state to award funding through the $42.5 billion BEAD program. It comes after Louisiana opened its grant program in August, and after the state was the first in the nation to receive NTIA approval on its initial BEAD proposal in December 2023.

According to the state, BEAD awards will allow providers to reach 140,000 locations with broadband infrastructure across all 64 Louisiana parishes – including "100,000 households, 35,000 small businesses and 4,000 community anchor institutions," states a press release.

In addition to roughly $748 million in infrastructure funding, Louisiana will also allocate over $500 million in "non-deployment funds" for efforts including expanding telehealth and promoting digital programming in K-12 schools.

The state further clarified that over 90% of the awarded fiber plant will be buried underground "to ensure infrastructure integrity," and that over 30 mobile towers will be built "to ensure overall telecommunications resilience."

Related:Louisiana will be first state to roll out BEAD grants

Awarded providers

The largest recipients of infrastructure funding include an entity dubbed as "Louisiana Local Fiber Consortium," which picked up $450.5 million to cover 76,815 locations. That's followed by Conexon Connect ($65 million to cover 8,489 locations) and AT&T ($54.9 million to cover 20,073 locations). As the state notes in its final proposal, roughly 70% of deployment funds will go to companies based in Louisiana.

Louisiana also has $28.7 million pending for an "alternative technology provider" to cover 2,869 locations at $10,000 per location. These areas, which received no interest from fiber or fixed wireless providers, are expected to be covered by SpaceX's Starlink or Amazon's Project Kuiper, which were both pre-approved providers for Louisiana's BEAD program.

The highest any service provider received per broadband serviceable location (BSL) was $16,630 (Faster Cajun Networks), with the lowest being $1,424 (A2D Inc.), putting Louisiana's average spend per BSL at $5,355.

See a full list of Louisiana's selected BEAD providers and totals below:

Service Provider

Total BSLs

Total Funding

Funding per BSL

Louisiana Local Fiber Consortium

76,815

$450,476,832

$5,864

Nextlink

2,474

$5,311,789

$2,147

AT&T

20,073

$54,943,186

$2,737

Charter

1,701

$11,739,186

$6,901

Brightspeed

2,801

$7,510,130

$2,681

ClearPath Fiber

7,356

$34,545,962

$4,696

Conexon Connect

8,489

$65,902,273

$7,763

Cajun Broadband

4,667

$26,720,564

$5,725

Coushatta Tribe of LA

641

$3,529,898

$5,507

FastWyre

17

$68,057

$4,003

A2D Inc

4,758

$6,773,005

$1,424

Direct Communications

1,837

$17,442,414

$9,495

SkyRider Communications

764

$5,893,456

$7,714

PhireLink

148

$550,002

$3,716

Comcast

205

$749,229

$3,655

Cox Communications

1,611

$10,685,237

$6,633

Allen's Communications

310

$1,549,003

$4,997

Pelican Broadband

1,314

$4,210,190

$3,204

Faster Cajun Networks

383

$6,369,256

$16,630

Volt Broadband

444

$4,366,076

$9,834

PENDING: Alternative Technology Provider

2,869

$28,690,000

$10,000

Louisiana still needs NTIA sign-off on its final proposal to begin BEAD deployments. The public can send comments on the final proposal through Tuesday, December 10.

Current state of BEAD

As of today, Tuesday, November 19, every state and territory (now including Texas, the only state that was outstanding) has NTIA approval on their initial BEAD proposals, enabling all 56 eligible entities to move forward with their grant programs. To that end, the NTIA has also released a new BEAD dashboard tracking next steps in the process (including executing their challenge process, selecting eligible ISPs and releasing a final proposal).

In a blog post today, the NTIA marked the milestone of officially approving every state and territory's initial BEAD plan and expressed optimism for the road ahead:

"BEAD was designed as the 'clean-up hitter' of Internet funding – to fill gaps that aren't covered by other federal programs or connected by the private sector alone. To accomplish that goal, Congress required NTIA and the states to take a deliberate and comprehensive approach to their Internet planning," wrote the NTIA. "Thanks to the hard work of state broadband offices and support from Governors, Members of Congress, and local advocates, we are on time and on track to meeting the President's goal of delivering Internet for All by 2030."

About the Author

Nicole Ferraro

Editor, host of 'The Divide' podcast, Light Reading

Nicole covers broadband's impact on society, with a focus on policy and the digital divide. She hosts The Divide on the Light Reading Podcast and tracks broadband builds in The Buildout column.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like