BEAD-Eligible Locations Down 14% With Latest State Map Updates: ACLP
The number of unserved and underserved broadband locations in the U.S. has dropped 65% over the past 31 months, according to New York Law School's Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute. ACLP said Tuesday that states' BEAD maps -- which have been updated over the past six weeks, as NTIA directed -- show a 14% drop in eligible locations. The latest maps reflect updated FCC data, including newly served locations, Rural Deployment Opportunity Fund defaults, the addition of unlicensed fixed wireless service, and additional enforceable commitments from other funding programs. There are now about 4.2 million eligible unserved and underserved locations, ACLP said. Eligible locations dropped by about 663,000 since states released post-BEAD challenge data, a 14% decrease. The total number of eligible unserved and underserved locations has fallen by about 7.7 million since December 2022, when BEAD funding was allocated.
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ACLP Director Michael Santorelli said in a statement that removing these locations cuts the chances that BEAD will subsidize unnecessary overbuilding. "But on the other hand, these changes mean that, in some instances, locations that might have been in line to receive robust and reliable broadband service over fiber or cable under the previous rules might now be deemed served by a lesser quality connection," he said. "This is a trade-off inherent" in Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's "Benefit of the Bargain" BEAD restructuring, announced in June (see 2506060052).