How Quintillion is Justifying Some of the Most Expensive Tentative BEAD Projects

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2025 – Companies that won tentative grants under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program need to defend projects that come in above a certain per-location cost.

Alaska fiber provider Quintillion was tentatively approved for what are likely two of the most expensive projects, on a per-location basis, in the whole $42.45 billion program. President Mac McHale thinks the company can convince the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to let them stand.

NTIA is using an internal cost model to determine which projects need justification or rebidding. Projects above the 60th percentile – more expensive per location than 60 percent of deployment projects predicted by the model in a given state – need a written defense.

Those above the 85th percentile need to be negotiated down to the 85th percentile price with the state broadband office, and those above the 85th percentile plus 15 percent of that price can only stand under “extenuating circumstances.”

At more than $112,000 and $119,000 per location, Quintillion’s projects easily clear Alaska’s ‘85th percentile plus 15 percent’ threshold of $67,275 per location.

“We led first of all with the size of Alaska, how large it is, right?” McHale said in a recent interview. 

Many areas don't have nearby utilities

That large size, and the state’s sparse population, means most of Alaska’s communities aren’t connected to the state’s main road system, and many areas don’t have nearby utilities. 

In many places, construction materials and supplies have to be brought in by boat or plane and independent power sources have to be stood up.

“We felt pretty comfortable that we could justify all our costs and basically show that there’s nothing wasteful here,” he said. “This is what it costs to build in a place like Alaska.”

McHale said the company had to answer a second round of questions on why fixed wireless or satellite service wouldn’t work in the project areas at issue. The Trump administration has been pushing states to lower BEAD deployment costs, and fixed wireless and satellite is often cheaper than fiber.

He said Quintillion argued fiber was a longer term asset that would work for years to come and make it easier to expand broadband in areas adjacent to the villages the company was planning on building. 

Fixed wireless radios, he said the company argued, can be difficult to maintain in Alaskan weather because of the heavy snow and ice. 

Fiber “gives you lots of options going forward, in terms of future-proofing,” McHale said. “Which I think satellite and fixed wireless on its own does not do.”

Quintillion’s tentative BEAD projects include laying fiber to St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait, more than 120 miles from the Alaskan mainland, and a 719-location village with no road access. The company also emphasized potential national security uses for the infrastructure on St. Lawrence Island, which is physically closer to Russia than Alaska.

McHale said the company also argued the middle mile deployment necessary for the projects are largely what drove up the per-location costs, accounting for 83 percent of the total cost of the village project and 86 percent of the St. Lawrence Island project. 

NTIA is in the process of approving BEAD spending plans put together by state broadband offices, one of the last steps before tentative awards like Quintilion's can be finalized and work can get underway.

The agency has so far approved plans from 26 states and three territories. Those plans have delivered on the cost savings front – NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday that the agency expects that the 56 states and teritories will ultimately come in $21 billion under budget.

Alaska’s has yet to be approved, and it’s not clear where NTIA will fall on Quintillion’s projects.

State-level data posted Tuesday by NTIA has shown many states secured approval without major changes to their preliminary results.