Louisiana has released its updated Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) final proposal for public comment. It is based on the state’s Benefit of the Bargain round conducted under the new program rules and includes a revised list of proposed funding awardees.
The next step is for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to approve the final proposal, which will finalize the awardees.
Perhaps the biggest question on the industry’s mind is about the impact of the new BEAD rules on the broadband technology mix. The new Louisiana proposal calls for 80% of locations to get fiber broadband, while 9% of locations will be served by low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) service, and the remainder will be almost equally split between cable and fixed wireless technology.
The results may somewhat calm fears about an enormous shift to satellite service, although we don’t know yet whether other states will see Benefit of the Bargain results like Louisiana’s.
It’s also important to note that the percentage of Louisiana locations slated to get LEO satellite service did increase substantially from the initial results. The initial results released in January called for just 2% of locations to be served by satellite.
Initial award recommendations were for a total of $748 million for 139,677 locations. The new recommendations total just under $500 million for about 127,000 locations. The state anticipates negotiating with LEO satellite providers to serve 1,044 “orphan” locations for which funding was not awarded.
Louisiana Benefit of the Bargain Proposed Awardees
The new Louisiana final BEAD proposal calls for 12 or 13 entities to receive funding, depending on whether SpaceX or a different LEO provider wins funding for the orphan locations. The new total is down from 21 on the initial awards list. There were no new names on the new awards list. All were on the list of awardees released in January based on the initial rules.
Most of the awardees are slated to receive less funding than they did initially — either because the number of locations for which they won funding decreased, or the award per location decreased.
Those entities include:
- AT&T
- Brightspeed
- Cajun Broadband
- Conexon Connect
- Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
- Direct Communications
- Louisiana Local Fiber Consortium
- Pelican Broadband
- SkyRider Communications
There were two exceptions.
Comcast is slated to receive $16.2 million for 6,561 locations — up from $749,229 for 205 locations.
And Nextlink is slated to receive $18.5 million for 7,460 locations — up from $5.3 million for 2,474 locations.
Both companies will receive less funding on a per-location basis than they would have initially, suggesting that they may have changed the technology they plan to use for at least some locations.
The initial preference for fiber may have driven them to bid to deploy fiber initially. But perhaps Comcast shifted toward hybrid-fiber coax/ DOCSIS, while Nextlink shifted from fiber toward fixed wireless.
Top Awardees
The five top new awardees, measured by the amount of funding they are slated to receive, are:
- Louisiana Fiber Consortium ($378 million)
- AT&T ($21.5 million)
- Nextlink ($18.5 million)
- Cajun Broadband ($18.2 million)
- Comcast ($16.2 million)
The top five awardees, measured by the number of locations they will serve, are:
- Louisiana Fiber Consortium (68,535 locations)
- AT&T (19,784 locations)
- SpaceX (10,327 locations)
- Nextlink (7,460 locations)
- Comcast (6,561 locations)
Louisiana Fiber Consortium and AT&T were among the top five winners, measured by locations or by funding, in the previous awards round and the new round.
All other entities on the top five lists above are newcomers to the lists.
Entities initially slated to receive funding that are no longer recommended for funding are:
- A2D
- Allen’s Communications
- Charter
- ClearPath Fiber
- Cox
- Faster Cajun Networks
- FastWyre
- PhireLink
- Volt Broadband
Additional information about the new Louisiana BEAD award recommendations can be found here.
