States Releasing BEAD Plans Hits 39
NTIA also approved a further extension for California to submit its plan to the agency.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2025 − States across the country are nearing the finish line in drafting plans for how they will spend billions in federal broadband funds, with five more states releasing proposals this week.
The five released draft spending plans under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program this week, bringing the total to at least 39. California also said Friday that the Commerce Department approved another extension for the state to submit its final proposal, to Nov. 21, 2025 from Oct. 2, 2025.
Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Indiana, and Michigan posted their plans for public comment. They’ll accept public input on them for seven days before submitting them to Commerce for approval. That federal approval is the last step before state broadband offices can begin funding projects under the $42.45 billion program.
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s teamwork and support in allowing us to ensure that 100 percent of eligible Alabama addresses will be covered and doing so in the most fiscally responsible manner possible,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) said in a statement.
In the states that have reported tentative results so far, about 68 percent of their BEAD-eligible locations are slated to get fiber, according to an analysis of their results. Satellite would see about 19 percent, with fixed wireless at about 9 percent and cable at about 3. Some states were still negotiating coverage for some of their eligible locations when they published.
“Among the large wireline operators, Comcast remains at the top with the highest number of locations and the highest amount of funding (153k locations with total funding of $845MM). AT&T is a distant second with 112k locations and $540MM in funding,” New Street Research analyst Vikash Harlalka said in a Friday research note.
The results are tentative and may need to be changed to secure the green light from Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. People familiar with the process said the agency is looking to push state spending lower and potentially shift the most expensive winning projects to other ISPs.
The Trump administration handed down new rules for the program in June, which removed an explicit preference for fiber and emphasized cost savings. While most locations are getting fiber, states are funding more satellite broadband than they would have under the Biden administration and are coming in far under budget. The states that have reported so far are planning to spend $15 billion less than they were allocated under the program in 2023.
The states that reported this week leaned on fiber. Alaska didn’t post location level data and didn’t specify which technologies its successful projects used, so its results couldn't be analyzed.
In Michigan, nearly 85 percent of the state’s 221,800 BEAD locations would get fiber, with the large majority of the rest getting satellite. Alabama and Indiana were both above 75 percent fiber, again with much of the remainder getting satellite.
Connecticut, a relatively smaller state with just 1,790 locations getting funding, was about 78 percent fiber and 22 percent cable.
NSR’s Harlalka said in his note that satellite ISPs SpaceX and Kuiper were still far in the lead in terms of locations. They’re set to serve 225,000 and 219,000 respectively, compared to third place Comcast at 153,000.
The satellite providers have managed to underbid their wireline competitors. SpaceX’s tentative funding per location is $1,800, according to New Street, and Kuiper’s is just $664, compared to about $5,000 for the major wireline ISPs.
New Street’s analysis included the three U.S. territories to have reported, and excluded Indiana and Alabama.
SpaceX has challenged BEAD results in many states, arguing it should have won more locations because of its low bids.
While fiber isn’t explicitly preferred anymore, the law standing up BEAD says projects that can scale easily over time get first choice of BEAD locations, even if technologies that can’t scale as easily would be cheaper.
States have been asked to make that call on an application-by-application basis, and have in some cases said mountainous terrain and tree cover cut against wireless applicants in certain areas.
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