Updated Analysis Estimates 1.1 Million Locations Could Remain Unfunded After BEAD

Using the FCC’s Broadband Funding Map and state BEAD Final Proposal data, the ACLP estimates that approximately 1.1 million locations without 100/20 Mbps service will remain unfunded after BEAD awards.

NoteFull Report Available

This post provides a summary of our Remaining Unfunded Locations After BEAD Awards report, which includes a detailed methodology, a breakdown by unserved vs underserved, figures with and without satellite BEAD awards, and additional state-by-state information.

Key Takeaways

• According to the FCC’s Broadband Funding Map, 3,379,711 locations across the U.S. are currently without 100/20 Mbps terrestrial service.
• After accounting for BEAD awards, 1,101,356 locations without 100/20 Mbps service remain unfunded. When the number of units at a location is factored in (e.g., apartment units in a building), 1,342,667 units remain unfunded.
• Of the remaining unfunded locations, approximately 53.8% are “underserved” (have 25/3 Mbps service but not 100/20 Mbps).
• According to BFM data, 33.7% of BEAD locations already have 100/20 Mbps terrestrial service (wired or fixed wireless), suggesting that BEAD may involve overbuilding beyond the 20% allowed for in the program rules.
• This updated analysis underscores the need for a BEAD Reserve Fund, which the ACLP first proposed last October. Using remaining BEAD dollars to seed a Reserve Fund and deploying those resources as part of a second round of BEAD would ensure that the goal of the program is realized: that as many unserved and underserved locations as possible receive broadband service via BEAD.

Overview

This analysis estimates the number of broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) without 100/20 Mbps terrestrial service that remain unfunded by any program even after accounting for BEAD awards.

Table 1: Locations and Units Without 100/20 Mbps Service Remaining Unfunded

Metric	Locations	Units
Total unfunded before BEAD awards	3,379,711	3,966,368
Total remaining unfunded	1,101,356	1,342,667
Underserved (has 25/3)	592,408	748,646
Unserved (no 25/3)	508,948	594,021

NoteLocations vs. Units

We report figures either in terms of “locations” or “units.” Locations are defined as a single Broadband Serviceable Location. Each “location” can have 1 or more “units.” For example, an apartment building with 12 apartments would represent 1 location and 12 units. Since a location has at least 1 unit by default, figures in “units” will always be either equal to or greater than figures by locations.

Updated Methodology

To identify locations that could be eligible for a second round of BEAD we:

1. Start with the FCC’s Broadband Funding Map (BFM), which provides a pre-computed list of locations that are unserved or underserved.
2. Set aside any location that is funded by another deployment program using the BFM’s award data from 5 federal entities spanning 15 broadband deployment programs.
3. Set aside locations which were intentionally not given a BEAD award by states, as identified in Final Proposal “No BEAD” data. These exclusions happened for a variety of reasons; we set aside all except those marked as ‘too expensive to serve.’
4. Count how many unserved/underserved locations that are currently unfunded will be covered by BEAD, and how many will remain.

This process differs slightly from our previous analysis, which manually identified unserved locations from National Broadband Map availability data. Since the pre-computed BFM location lists are generated by the FCC, we now utilize those lists instead of performing this portion of the analysis on our own.

Conservatively Estimating Locations Eligible for a Second BEAD Round

A location is counted as “without 100/20 Mbps” if the BFM indicates no 100/20 Mbps terrestrial service exists and no other funding program has committed to providing such service. If the BFM indicates that either residential or business service is available, it is counted as served.

Altogether, this process is intended to provide a conservative estimate on remaining unfunded locations. Along with the above considerations, by setting aside all locations receiving funding from BEAD or another program, we are also implicitly assuming that 100% of funded locations will receive service. However, if BEAD or other programs experience defaults—which are generally unavoidable for deployment programs—the number of unfunded and unserved/underserved locations will increase.

A detailed discussion of our analysis methodology is provided in our full report.

Remaining Unfunded Summary by State

Table 2: Remaining Unfunded Summary by State

State	Unfunded Locations Without 100/20	Locations Without 100/20 Funded by BEAD	Remaining Unfunded Locations	% Remaining Unfunded Locations	Remaining Unfunded Units
TOTAL	3,379,711	2,278,355	1,101,356	32.6%	1,342,667
AK	47,783	40,928	6,855	14.3%	7,489
AL	116,656	70,325	46,331	39.7%	55,588
AR	65,068	46,911	18,157	27.9%	21,703
AS	7,088	6,602	486	6.9%	486
AZ	72,441	53,937	18,504	25.5%	25,438
CA	151,095	121,573	29,522	19.5%	51,057
CO	75,307	63,356	11,951	15.9%	14,547
CT	4,464	1,261	3,203	71.8%	6,341
DC	34	19	15	44.1%	19
DE	5,217	3,126	2,091	40.1%	2,318
FL	129,891	88,306	41,585	32.0%	55,735
GA	87,038	66,276	20,762	23.9%	27,102
GU	20	4	16	80.0%	16
HI	6,767	5,562	1,205	17.8%	1,509
IA	31,939	20,633	11,306	35.4%	12,459
ID	45,737	38,267	7,470	16.3%	9,182
IL	91,547	68,248	23,299	25.5%	26,828
IN	88,891	53,212	35,679	40.1%	38,817
KS	30,880	21,489	9,391	30.4%	11,315
KY	114,604	71,229	43,375	37.8%	49,515
LA	106,197	73,698	32,499	30.6%	56,866
MA	5,787	2,736	3,051	52.7%	3,612
MD	19,528	10,848	8,680	44.4%	10,820
ME	27,695	18,537	9,158	33.1%	10,196
MI	150,739	115,330	35,409	23.5%	43,947
MN	67,256	43,153	24,103	35.8%	26,348
MO	85,825	74,988	10,837	12.6%	12,195
MP	7,425	6,829	596	8.0%	652
MS	70,936	60,187	10,749	15.2%	12,270
MT	54,296	42,425	11,871	21.9%	14,104
NC	151,747	63,298	88,449	58.3%	97,077
ND	515	152	363	70.5%	374
NE	14,605	8,995	5,610	38.4%	6,740
NH	6,491	3,208	3,283	50.6%	3,749
NJ	8,098	3,647	4,451	55.0%	5,216
NM	39,914	28,385	11,529	28.9%	14,143
NV	7,467	6,129	1,338	17.9%	2,054
NY	66,205	47,139	19,066	28.8%	22,569
OH	117,869	45,869	72,000	61.1%	77,499
OK	43,406	16,918	26,488	61.0%	39,154
OR	72,934	61,533	11,401	15.6%	12,991
PA	130,724	106,265	24,459	18.7%	31,682
RI	4,999	1,178	3,821	76.4%	6,081
SC	38,521	16,084	22,437	58.2%	26,745
SD	8,995	6,218	2,777	30.9%	3,042
TN	52,944	31,791	21,153	40.0%	23,546
TX	191,887	119,978	71,909	37.5%	95,370
UT	22,368	16,430	5,938	26.5%	6,606
VA	190,662	61,347	129,315	67.8%	148,726
VT	29,058	13,559	15,499	53.3%	17,712
WA	175,500	138,473	37,027	21.1%	43,476
WI	128,885	113,809	15,076	11.7%	17,558
WV	83,189	58,642	24,547	29.5%	26,391
WY	24,577	19,313	5,264	21.4%	5,692

Current Status of BEAD Funded Locations

We compare the BFM locations against BEAD Final Proposal data compiled from 54 states and territories. We match BEAD award locations against the full BFM dataset to determine their current service status:

• 55.2% of BEAD locations are without 100/20 Mbps (both residential and business terrestrial service is not available)
• 33.7% have residential, business, or both types of terrestrial 100/20 Mbps service, or faster
• 11.1% do not match to any BFM location

Terrestrial includes wired, licensed, and unlicensed fixed wireless. If the definition of service is narrowed, the percentage of BEAD locations that are already served per BFM data decreases:

• 33.7% have terrestrial 100/20 Mbps (wired + all fixed wireless)
• 24.1% have wired or licensed fixed wireless 100/20 Mbps
• 5.5% have wired 100/20 Mbps

Regardless of what definition is used, it appears that BEAD deployments will involve some overbuilding of already served locations.