Delaware Unveils BEAD Spending Plan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2024 – Delaware unveiled Wednesday its preliminary awards for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Verizon is set to take home more than $17.4 million and Comcast committed to a project without financial support, according to records posted by the state broadband office. 

The state secured fiber broadband connections for all of its remaining homes and businesses without adequate internet access – about 5,600 – accomplishing a major goal of the $42.5 billion federal program. Delaware’s $17.4 million in spending was well under its $107 million allocation, and the state plans to spend its remaining BEAD cash on workforce development and network resilience projects.

“I want to thank every Internet Service Provider who applied to help bring universal internet service to Delaware,” Roddy Flynn, executive director of the Delaware Broadband Office, said in a statement. “This was a very competitive process, which shows the strong telecommunications ecosystem we have in Delaware. The awards to Verizon and Comcast represent the strongest investment of taxpayer money, and we are confident these projects will be completed on time, on budget, and using a highly skilled and qualified workforce.”