Today, Tennessee became one of the first states to announce and publish the list of applicants for its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Benefit of the Bargain funding round.
As such, Tennessee becomes one of the first states for which we can compare the initial round of BEAD applications — before the new BEAD guidelines were issued by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on June 6 — with the application list for the Benefit of the Bargain round, which reflects the new guidelines.
The differences are striking; the technology neutral stance of the new guidelines is clearly encouraging providers that did not apply in the initial round to enter the fray.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) released its list of initial round applications in April and released the Benefit of the Bargain list of applications today. See Telecompetitor’s side-by-side list of project areas, applicants, and funds requested here.
Here are some of the important differences between the initial Tennessee BEAD round and its Benefit of the Bargain round:
- Total project areas: Tennessee has 178 BEAD project areas that received at least one application in either the initial round or the Benefit of the Bargain round. However, a representative from Tennessee told us that, after new location data was assessed, the state has only 173 remaining project areas. All 173 received applications in the Benefit of the Bargain round.
- Application number grows by 80%: Tennessee received 298 applications in its initial round and 541 in its Benefit of the Bargain round.
- Starlink gets aggressive: In the initial round of funding, Starlink did not apply for funding. In the Benefit of the Bargain round, Starlink applied to serve 164 project areas with low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband.
- Comcast switches proposed technologies: In the initial round of funding, Comcast applied for funding for 27 project areas. In the Benefit of the Bargain round, Comcast applied to serve 39 project areas. The key difference is that, in the initial round, Comcast proposed to serve these areas with fiber broadband and is now proposing to serve them with cable broadband at a lower cost.
- Amazon’s Project Kuiper requests less money: Amazon’s Project Kuiper applied to serve several project areas in the initial round in Tennessee. That’s still true, but now the company is seeking far less funding for the same project areas. In one area, Benton 1, Amazon requested $115,162.50 in the initial round and is requesting $6,600 in the Benefit of the Bargain round. In almost every project area where Amazon applied, the amount requested went down dramatically. This may be related to the number of eligible locations — see below.
- Costs go down, generally: Across various providers, the overall trend from the initial round to the Benefit of the Bargain round is a reduction in the amount requested. This is, no doubt, a response to the new BEAD guidelines’ emphasis on reducing costs.
- Local providers’ changes vary: In some instances, the amount requested by local providers went up or down — the amounts requested by Ben Lomand Communications did both, in different project areas — or held steady, as is the case for the Dickson Electric Department, whose initial round requests and Benefit of the Bargain round requests are identical.
- Some areas will now not be covered: Four project areas received at least one application in the initial round but received none in the Benefit of the Bargain round (Franklin 3, Putnam 1, Putnam 2, and Union 2).
- Some areas will now be covered: Three project areas received at least one application in the Benefit of the Bargain round but received none in the initial round (Anderson 2, Blount 2, and Blount 3).
Some of the changes in amounts requested may have to do with the number of locations in each project area — some locations that were initially eligible are no longer eligible because of new or planned buildouts and changes in BEAD rules involving unlicensed fixed wireless.
Unfortunately, the released Tennessee BEAD information does not include the number of locations in each project area. However, according to data on the Tennessee state website, nearly 7,000 locations are no longer eligible for BEAD funding, changing the number of total locations from around 51,000 to around 44,000.
A TNECD official told Telecompetitor that Tennessee was one of the states that initially required providers applying for BEAD funds to serve 100% of the locations in a project area. The new BEAD guidelines, though, keep states from issuing such requirements, so it’s possible that some providers are applying for BEAD funds now that they are not required to serve all locations within a project area.
The changes from the initial round of BEAD funding in Tennessee to the Benefit of the Bargain round are eye-opening. The aggressiveness of Starlink and a general reduction in the grant amounts requested are trends that may play out across the country.
