Mississippi’s Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) recently gave the go-ahead for a dozen broadband infrastructure projects, with the projected $32.5 million cost to be funded by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF).
TEC was approved for four projects, in Jasper, Lawrence, Leake, and Scott counties. CSpire was given awards for planned projects in Hinds, Lamar, and Tate Counties. Swyft Fiber earned the awards for Amite and Covington counties.
Combined, the projects will provide internet service to about 9,000 households in portions of the counties listed above and below. In 2024, BEAM’s $100 million in approved funding was responsible for 37 other CPF projects to provide broadband for about 42,000 Mississippi households.
Other awards went to:
- Calhoun County: Bruce Telephone Company
- Panola County: TVI Fiber
- Pontotoc County: We Connect Communications
- Tate County: TVI Fiber
“Mississippi continues to make incredible progress when it comes to expanding broadband across the state,” said Governor Tate Reeves, in the state’s announcement. “These 12 projects will go a long way toward ensuring Mississippians have the broadband access they need.”
Additionally, BEAM has made $878,000 in awards in a smaller CPF category for public Wi-Fi projects. These funds were applied for by and awarded to broadband providers to build Wi-Fi in public places (downtowns, parks, volunteer fire stations, etc.) for people to use for school, telehealth, or similar uses.
There has been other broadband funding for the state as well. BEAM oversees the $32 million Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP) projects (14 projects in 10 counties), as well as completing requirements to access $1.2 billion in funding provided by the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant. BEAM also oversees the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $10.7 million State Digital Skills and Accessibility grant.
Additional information about Mississippi broadband, including links to state funding resources, awards made, state-specific Telecompetitor coverage and more, can be found on the Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
