Illinois Releases Revised Draft of Final BEAD Plan
Illinois released its revised draft Tuesday for its final BEAD plan under NTIA's "Benefit of the Bargain" round. The state received 66% more applications than previous rounds, with an average cost of about $6,100 per location, wrote Office of Broadband Director Devon Braunstein. That's 21% less per location than the state's previous round, she noted.
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According to an analysis by BroadbandMarketer's Doug Adams, the state designated about 95% of its original BEAD allocation. He said the state is awarding 75.6% of its funding to fiber providers, about 15% to low earth orbit satellites, 9.1% to wireless and 0.3% to hybrid fiber-coaxial. "I have to wonder if Illinois was underfunded from the start," Adams added.