With about three quarters of BEAD final proposals approved, the administration notes progress, yet the overall BEAD pot remains subject to congressional appropriation. The original BEAD pot was $42.45 billion, and the approved final total for the 42 states and territories is now $11.668 billion after reductions.
NTIA reports a cumulative saving of $462,305,075 from the yearlong review and delays, equivalent to just over 1% of the original appropriation. Congress has not publicly moved to rescind the funds, and the remaining pot has been vaguely pledged by the Department of Commerce for other uses.
Final BEAD costs for approved plans show a 3.8% decrease—from $12,130,783,703 to $11,668,478,628—while the number of locations to be served declined slightly to 2,694,413 (California is not listed in either tally).
LEO deployments bore the bulk of the decline, while fiber investments kept a steady share. In the final NTIA approvals, fiber accounts for 65.6% of BEAD locations, LEO 21.1%, wireless 10.9%, and HFC & others 2.3%. Initial counts showed similar trends, with LEO comprising a notable fraction of the Benefit of the Bargain deployments.
NTIA’s revisions consolidate BEAD locations with CAIs (community anchor institutions) to simplify state-by-state definitions. The estimated cost per location has fluctuated, with rough calculations indicating around $4,331 per location in the approved 42 plans, versus earlier estimates near $4,725, though researchers caution these figures depend on how locations are counted.
Eligible entities with final BEAD proposals still to be released include Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, United States Virgin Islands, Vermont, and Washington. By July, the 42 plans approved with minor modifications had left about $18.3 billion on the table from an original $30.4 billion for those jurisdictions.
In broader coverage, some observers note the BEAD story received limited national media attention despite its scale, with commentary frequently focusing on other policy questions. As NTIA moves forward, the mix of technology and the distribution of funds will likely continue to evolve, but the overall trend shows a modest, not dramatic, shift from the Biden administration’s fiber-forward goals.
- Alaska
- California
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Tennessee
- United States Virgin Islands
- Vermont
- Washington
