Texas Awards $424.6 million in Broadband Deployment Grants

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2025 – Texas has taken a big step forward in connecting underserved residents with high-speed broadband.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Wednesday that he will be awarding $701.9 million to Texas counties, with $424.6 million of that already in agreements with ISPs. 

The funding is round two of the Texas Broadband Development Office’s Bring Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program, which hopes to close the digital divide gap by bringing high-speed Internet to unserved and underserved communities. 

A majority of the projects will be focused on bringing fiber connections that will bring Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second to all residents at a low cost. The Texas BDO requires that all BOOT projects must be completed by the end of 2026.

Of the ISP agreements so far, Texas will be awarding $424.6 million to over 54,000 locations, at an average cost of $7,786 per location. The highest average cost of the 13 awards was $28,474 per location for a fiber project in Edwards County, while the lowest cost per location was $3,896 for a hybrid project in Irion County.

Some of the high costs of the fiber projects in Texas were far more cost-efficient than other states’ projects. Nevada, for example, recently approved a BEAD fiber project that will cost $77,000 per location.

Hegar hopes that these projects will help revitalize rural Texas communities in a multitude of ways.

“This historic investment will ensure that reliable, high-speed broadband – critical to health care, education and economic development – is available to every person in these counties,” Hegar said.

The Texas BDO also announced it was finishing agreements for the rest of the BOOT funding, which they expect to connect an additional 39,000 locations when finalized, bringing the total to 95,000.