North Dakota Signs All BEAD Contracts
The state is planning to finish connecting its 279 eligible locations by the end of 2027.
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2026 – North Dakota has signed grant agreements formalizing all its awards under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, the state announced Tuesday.
The state had the smallest number of eligible locations of any state: 279. All but two of those locations will get fiber, and the others will get cable. North Dakota’s broadband office said in a release that it planned to finish construction by the end of 2027.
Two ISPs won BEAD funding in the state: Midco and BEK Communications. North Dakota is spending just $6.1 million of its $130 million allocation under the program.
“With these agreements in place, North Dakota is among the first states in the nation to complete this critical step in the BEAD process, moving from planning to full execution of deployment partnerships,” Brian Newby, head of the state’s broadband office, said in a statement. “That progress reflects strong collaboration with our provider partners and positions us well as we move into the final phase of connecting remaining unserved locations.”
The state is now working with BEK and Midco on permitting, engineering, and construction preparation, the broadband office said in a statement.
Other states are in the process of finishing their grant agreements and getting ISPs to sign them. Some like Louisiana have begun signing some of those documents and locking in BEAD awards.
North Dakota didn't award grant funding to satellite operators SpaceX and Amazon, which had asked for exemptions in their contracts that the Commerce Department shot down. States are still hammering out the terms of those agreements.
The state in December said it BEAD location count was brought down in part by Capital Projects Fund awards that are set to connect 3,000 locations.
