Yesterday, the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) announced that it had finalized its subgrantee agreements for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The announcement said that the Lone Star State’s BEAD funds are being awarded to 17 providers and will connect more than 208,000 underserved and unserved locations.
Texas is one of the few states to make their list of final BEAD awards public, as New York did in April.
The 17 final Texas BEAD awards are as follows:
- 360 Broadband LLC: $16,071,631 for fiber to 2,716 locations
- 4 IP Technology and Media LLC, d.b.a. Nexstream: $401,831,807 for fiber and fixed wireless to 32,404 locations
- AMG Technology Investment Group LLC, d.b.a. Nextlink Internet: $42,161,852 for fixed wireless to 34,417 locations
- Aristotle Unified Communications Inc.: $56,914,449 for fiber to 10,795 locations
- AT&T Services Inc., on behalf of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. LLC: $32,196,465 for fiber to 6,653 locations
- Charter Communications, d.b.a. Spectrum: $47,810,536 for fiber to 7,830 locations
- Connect Holding II LLC, d.b.a. Brightspeed: $24,396,727 for fiber to 6,574 locations
- Frontier Southwest Inc./Verizon: $59,185,393 for fiber to 8,259 locations
- IBT Group USA LLC: $2,300,708 for fixed wireless to 1,264 locations
- Lucky Fiber: $4,469,117 for fiber to 1,447 locations
- Lyte Fiber LLC: $115,992,900 for fiber and fixed wireless to 9,666 locations
- Plains Internet: $96,116,680 for fiber to 13,055 locations
- Rural Telecommunications of America Inc.: $15,803,008 for fiber to 3,314 locations
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., d.b.a. Starlink Services LLC: $108,787,903 for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite to 63,887 locations
- USConnect Holdings Inc., d.b.a. Livingston Telephone Co.: $36,634,389 for fiber to 3,928 locations
- Valor Telecommunications of Texas LLC, d.b.a. Uniti: $4,778,788 for fiber to 2,403 locations
- VTX Communications LLC: $2,120,407 for fiber and fixed wireless to 261 locations
Comparing Texas’ provisional and final BEAD awards
Telecompetitor compared Texas’ list of final BEAD awards with the provisional awards they announced last October and noted some of the interesting differences:
Total awards decreased by $203 million: The provisional awards totaled $1,271,233,725, while the final awards total $1,067,572,758 (about 84% of the provisional total).
Locations served decreased by 31,332: The provisional awards promised to bring service to 240,205 locations, while the final contracts are slated to bring service to 208,873 (about 87% of the provisional total).
This difference was, perhaps inadvertently, noted in the Texas BDO’s press release. The opening paragraph said that the BEAD program would “bring broadband coverage to over 208,000 unserved and underserved locations in Texas,” while the second paragraph said, “The BEAD program in Texas… aims to connect more than 240,000 unserved and underserved locations to high‑speed, reliable internet.”
Telecompetitor reached out to the Texas BDO about the discrepancy in the number of locations. An official told us, “Our office is implementing a process to ensure that any locations associated with projects that did not result in a signed grant agreement and are connected by an alternative provider.”
Five providers received no awards: Five providers awarded provisional awards in October did not appear on Texas’ final award list. They are:
- AMA Communications LLC: $1,385,518
- Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC (Amazon Leo): $1,145,659
- Astound Broadband: $166,100,901
- Resound Networks LLC: $23,127,233
- Thrive Broadband: $1,483,986
These providers’ provisional awards total $193,243,297, which represents all but $10 million of the overall $203 million reduction from Texas’ provisional BEAD awards to the state’s final list.
Changed awards, including one sharp increase and one sharp decrease: 12 of the 17 providers’ final Texas BEAD awards did not change significantly. There were interesting differences in the other five awards, though, including two providers whose awards changed significantly:
- The final award for USConnect Holdings Inc., d.b.a. Livingston Telephone Co., increased more than 400%, rising from an $8,536,703 provisional award to a $36,634,389 final award. They will now serve 3,928 locations, which is just over 250% of the 1,526 locations they would have served under the provisional award.
- Rural Telecommunications of America Inc.’s award decreased by more than two-thirds, dropping from a $48,392,725 provisional award to a $15,803,008 final award. They will now serve 3,314 locations, about 55% of the 5,977 locations they would have served under the provisional award.
- The final award for 4 IP Technology and Media LLC, d.b.a. Nexstream — the biggest winner in the Texas BEAD program — decreased about $6 million, from a $407,439,361 provisional award to a $401,831,807 final award. Under their final contract, they will serve 313 fewer locations.
- The final award for Lyte Fiber LLC decreased by about $3 million, from a $119,069,421 provisional award to a $115,992,900 final award. Even though their award decreased, they will serve 227 more locations under their final contract.
- Lastly, the final award for AMG Technology Investment Group LLC, d.b.a. Nextlink Internet, increased by about $3 million, from a $39,308,137 provisional award to a $42,161,852 final award. Even though their award increased, they will serve 2,813 fewer locations under their final contract.
Additional information about Texas broadband, including state funding resources, BEAD news, awards made, state-specific coverage, and more may be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
