Yesterday, the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) announced preliminary replacement awardees in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Those companies will take over projects that were declined by the initially chosen providers.
Four of the original Oregon BEAD awardees declined 15 projects prior to the June 10, 2026 Notice of Intent to Award acceptance deadline. The declined projects covered 13,381 broadband serviceable locations (BSLs). The projects approximately totaled $122.9 million in requested grant funding and more than $39.1 million in matching contributions.
The original providers that accepted awards were Alyrica Networks, Blue Mountain, Columbia County, Comcast Cable, Consumers Power Inc., Douglas Services, E4 Connect, Farmer’s Mutual Telephone Company, Gilliam County, Hood River Electric & Internet Co-op, Northwest Fiber, Pioneer Connect, Siuslaw, SpaceX (Starlink), Stimulus Technologies, and Windwave Communications.
Two rounds of competitive reassignment yielded six replacement providers for Oregon’s BEAD program: Alyrica, Amazon LEO, the City of Sherwood, Columbia County, Douglas Fast Net (DFN) and Stimulus Technologies.
Four providers — Alyrica Networks, Columbia County, Douglas Fast Net/Douglas Services and Stimulus Technologies — are both initial awardees and reassigned awardees.
“The successful reassignment of these projects demonstrates the strength of Oregon’s broadband partnerships and the resilience of the state’s BEAD implementation process,” OBO Director Nick Batz said in a press release. “By following a transparent, competitive replacement process, Oregon has ensured that communities will continue moving toward universal access to reliable, high-speed internet””
Oregon’s original BEAD allocation was $689 million.
The rationale behind submitting a proposal and subsequently pulling out can be seen through Astound’s experience. The company submitted 25 BEAD applications in Oregon and won only 12, according to VIce President of Regulatory Broadband and Community Relations Fred Maldonado. The approved applications were too far from the company’s existing network to justify the build, Maldonado said. He also cited cost increases during the long gap between the application and the award.
Astound forfeited approximately $90.6 million of their Oregon award by not going forward, according to public records.
Additional information about Oregon 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.
