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# Michigan Signs 17 Subgrants Under Federal Broadband Program
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/michigan-signs-17-subgrants-under-federal-broadband-program/
- Published: 2026-08-26T21:11:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-26T21:47:03.000Z
- Description: Nearly $1.5 billion in public and private investment will expand broadband access to roughly 200,000 locations.
- Author: Jericho Casper
- Tags: BEAD, #with-siderail, Michigan, 123NET, MIHI, NTIA, Arielle Roth, Comcast, Surf Internet, Midwest Energy & Communications, Great Lakes Energy, Upper Peninsula Telephone Company, ITC Broadband, SpaceX, Amazon Leo, Spectrum

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2026 – The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office has signed grant contracts with 17 organizations selected to receive Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funding, the office said Thursday. 

The executed agreements allow the internet service providers to move forward with permitting and construction under a $42.45 billion federal broadband infrastructure program. The state expects construction on its BEAD-funded projects to begin this month.

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MIHI said it has been working diligently with BEAD award winners to finalize grant contracts. 

The state’s approved final spending proposal calls for $916.6 million in federal BEAD funding, supplemented by $557.7 million in provider matching funds, for roughly $1.474 billion in total deployment costs, [according to data](https://broadbandusa.ntia.gov/sites/default/files/2026-01/BEAD%5FFP%5FOverview%5FMI.pdf?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) from the program’s federal administrator, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Michigan’s final proposal calls for 116 individual project awards spread across the 29 organizations to cover 197,964 eligible broadband serviceable locations, with fiber accounting for the vast majority of planned connections at 85.6 percent (69,498 locations).

Low-Earth orbit satellite is projected to serve another 12.4 percent (24,638 locations), while licensed fixed wireless accounts for 1.4 percent (2,698) and hybrid fiber-coaxial cable for 0.6 percent (1,130).

Signed subgrantees have four years from their execution date to substantially complete permitting, construction and begin delivering service. Low Earth orbit satellite continues through 2040, [MIHI’s website states](https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/mihi?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com).

### *The awards* 

MIHI has not identified which 17 of the 29 selected organizations have completed grant agreements, saying it plans to release updated information once all agreements have been executed. 

The state’s [final proposal](https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/mihi/funding-opportunities/bead/bead-grant-application-website/bead-final-proposal?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com), approved in December 2025, provides a detailed look at the full slate of selected subgrantees, which includes large national and regional operators alongside Michigan-based telephone companies, electric cooperatives and other smaller providers.

Strategic Management LLC is by far the largest recipient represented in the data, with dozens of individual project records and more than $276 million in BEAD support. 

The company has emerged as a big winner of BEAD funding nationally, also [picking up major awards](https://brandergroup.net/2025/11/bead-broadband-status-awards-by-state-october-2025/?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.

123NET, a Southfield, Mich., based fiber and data center operator, is among the larger recipients as well, with projects that represent more than $85 million in BEAD support and $42 million in matching funds, carrying an estimated 2,643 miles of buried fiber.

Several electric cooperatives also feature prominently, including Midwest Energy & Communications, Presque Isle Electric & Gas and Great Lakes Energy.

Midwest E&C has a single project worth about $59.4 million in BEAD support, with another $32 million in matching investment and an estimated 2,726 buried fiber.

Other major recipients include Surf Internet, a fiber provider operating across Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, along with ITC Broadband, Spectrum, Upper Peninsula Telephone Company and Comcast.

Some awards are for relatively small projects, going to a handful of century-old, family-owned local exchange carriers. 

Baraga Telephone Company, for example, has a project with about $735,000 in BEAD support. Southwest Michigan Communications has an award of only about $70,000\. Waldron Communication has roughly $1.6 million, while Pigeon Telephone has about $1.9 million.

The awards also include satellite, with proposed BEAD projects from SpaceX totaling roughly $28 million and Amazon Leo representing about $8 million in support.

### *Michigan's redo under Benefit of the Bargain*

MIHI had opened its original subgrantee selection process in 2024 and drew 392 applications between January through April 2025\. But before the state could finalize provisional awards, NTIA issued a [restructuring policy notice in June 2025](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ntia-rewrites-rules-for-bead-forcing-states-to-rebid-broadband-projects/) that eliminated the program’s fiber preference in favor of a lowest-cost, technology-neutral framework and directed every state to rescind provisional awards and hold a new competitive round.

For Michigan, that meant scrapping months of work and starting the selection process over. The state’s Benefit of the Bargain application window ran from July 21 to August 4, 2025, and MIHI received more than 800 applications from 38 entities during that round. 

The restructuring also left a large pool of money in limbo. Michigan's approved final proposal puts total deployment costs at $916.6 million against the state’s full $1.559 billion BEAD allocation, meaning roughly $640 million falls outside the deployment budget as “savings” from the new lowest-cost bidding process.

What happens to that money remains an open question nationally. NTIA has [repeatedly delayed issuing guidance](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/state-broadband-chiefs-await-guidance-on-21-billion-of-remaining-bead-funds/) on how states can spend these nondeployment funds, even as the agency has said it expects states to collectively come in more than $21 billion under budget.

As of late June 2026, NTIA Administrator **Arielle Roth** was telling lawmakers [guidance was targeted for this summer](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/roth-ntia-now-targeting-non-deployment-guidance-this-summer/), with no formal rules yet released as of this writing.

MIHI has said it’s weighing options including AI infrastructure, 5G expansion and pole resiliency work for its own leftover funds, but any final plan will depend on guidance NTIA has yet to deliver.

### *BEAD moves toward deployment*

Nearby, Illinois [was the last state](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/illinois-bead-plan-approved/) to have its spending plan under the BEAD program approved Tuesday, capping months of back-and-forth with NTIA. 

The state had originally called for spending roughly $970 million, about 93 percent, of its $1.04 billion BEAD allocation. The version NTIA ultimately approved spends roughly $139 million less.

Roth said Tuesday that her agency has[ now approved final proposals](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ntia-roths-celebrates-major-policy-victory-all-bead-plans-have-been-approved-by-the-trump-administration/) from all 56 states and territories participating in the $42.45 billion program, calling it a major step toward universal broadband availability.