While touted by the acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock in a Nov. 20 release as a “landmark achievement,” the award has disappointed many rural providers and community leaders, according to published reports.
________________________________________________
The Texas Comptroller has announced that the state is set to receive $1.3 billion in federal funds to improve broadband access — about a third of the amount initially pledged.
While touted by the acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock in a Nov. 20 release as a “landmark achievement,” the award has disappointed many rural providers and community leaders, according to published reports.
“I think an incredible opportunity has been missed,” Big Bend Telephone general manner Rusty Moore said in one published report.
The initial pledge to Texas under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, or “BEAD,” was $3.3 billion. That amount was announced in 2023 as part of former President Biden’s bipartisan Infrastructure act. Texas won formal approval for that allocation in 2024.
But early during the Trump administration Texas submitted a new $1.3 billion plan, and it is that plan that now has received the green light from the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“A lot less than what we expected.”
“For the longest time, everyone has been saying it’s $3.3 billion, and there were even questions if $3.3 billion was going to be enough for Texas,” said Lonnie Hunt, the executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments and Economic Development District, in an article that appeared The Texas Tribune. “It’s a lot less than what we expected it to be,” she said
More than 7 million Texans lack broadband service, with a disproportionate number of unserved and underserved people living in far-flung rural areas. Those areas are expensive to serve and broadband companies that do serve them tend to charge comparatively higher rates for comparatively slower speeds.
In all, more than $6.4 billion in requests were received from providers in Texas for federal BEAD dollars — and much of that sought-after funding was intended to address those rural disparities. Now, however, the state is in line not to receive that amount, nor even $3.3 billion — but $1.3 billion, which is “much … less than what’s needed to provide rural communities with the same quality of service available in metro areas,” said Kelty Garbee, the executive director of non-profit Texas Rural Funders, in an interview with the Texas Tribune.
Broadband Expansion in Texas
But acting Comptroller Hancock said that with the NTIA approval, the state “will ensure federal funds are used carefully and transparently.” His office said the BEAD funds will allow for connections of more than 123,000 locations through end-to-end fiber technology, 65,000 connections through low-earth orbit satellites (from Elon Musk’s Earthlink service), and 54,000 connections through wireless radio signals.
The state’s BEAD-financed programs aim to “make it possible for almost every Texas location on the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map to connect to high-speed internet for the first time in state history,” the acting comptroller said
Texas also has created a match assistance program using state funds to help small and mid-sized providers compete, according to Hancock’s office.