Nebraska’s Vistabeam Turns on BEAD Connection

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2026 – President Joe Biden signed a major broadband deployment funding law on Nov. 15, 2021. Four and a half years later, the law just connected the first customer to high-speed Internet access.

That honor belongs to Nebraska fixed wireless provider Vistabeam, which turned on the first active subscriber connected by the $42.45 billion broadband grant program, the company said Thursday.

The company used Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment funding to upgrade three radios near Ogallala, Neb., that can serve 93 homes and businesses. That work was done days after the project cleared environmental reviews, the company said in a release.