Rural life is what makes southeast Oklahoma a great place to live, according to Kris Bailey.
“We have small communities, which I love. Beautiful country. We have a lot of timber industry. A lot of farming,” she said. “I mean, of course I'm a little biased, but I think it's a beautiful part of the state to live in and to raise your family in.”
But in parts of this rural corner of the state, it can be hard to get high speed internet.
Bailey works as a family and consumer sciences educator, connecting farmers and other rural residents to educational resources through the Oklahoma State University Extension. But even the extension office in Choctaw County has slow connectivity.
“It still is not good enough for us to upgrade our phone systems to an internet-based phone,” she said, “And that's what we're really needing in that office.”
The Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment – or BEAD – Program is meant to help far-flung places, like Choctaw County, finally get faster internet service.
In 2023, Congress allocated about $42 billion to BEAD through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The National Telecommunication Information Administration oversees the program with the aim “to connect every American to high-speed internet.”
Earlier this year, states had submitted proposals and were preparing to sift through project bids. Then, on June 6, the Trump Administration pressed pause, issuing new guidance for BEAD. Changes to the program included asking states to look at technologies beyond fiber optics, as well as implementing the “Benefit of the Bargain Round,” which requires awards to be given to the lowest-cost option.
A quick switch
The Oklahoma Broadband Office had to shift quickly after the Nation Telecommunication Information Administration, or NTIA, released the new guidelines.
“We were two days from announcing where we were, and then the rules changed,” said Mike Sanders, executive director of the state’s broadband office. “So, where we had eight to ten months leading up to that, we had 90 days. Everything was condensed in a year's work, I kid you not, into three months.”
The office submitted its internet proposals again earlier this month, and Sanders credits his team for making it happen.
While Oklahoma is waiting for the federal government's final word on proposals, other states, including Missouri, Texas, Illinois and Indiana, needed extensions, according to the NTIA.
BJ Tanksley, director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development, said his office expects to have final proposals submitted at the end of the month.
“We were the third largest recipient of funds, and that was a great honor, but it also was because we had a lot of locations to get service to,” Tanksley said, pointing to some 200,000 areas in the state without broadband access.
The Missouri office finished the first round of bidding under the original rules in the spring but pumped the brakes when it learned changes might be on the way. Tanksley said the new rules to consider all broadband technology and emphasize using the lowest cost option will still allow the state to do quality work.
“There's times in our rural spaces where another technology can serve that customer just as well, while saving the provider some funds to be able to reach more,” Tanksley said.
A tech-neutral, lower cost approach
Some experts say there will be trade-offs in having states move away from a fiber technology preference to consider other types of broadband technology.
Brian Whitacre is a rural economic development extension specialist with Oklahoma State University. He said fiber is reliable, has faster speeds, is easier to update and lasts for decades.
“I think most people consider fiber to be kind of the gold standard of broadband,” he said.
But, Whitacre said, fiber is also more expensive to install.
Oklahoma’s latest proposal for the BEAD program will include more fixed wireless and satellite service — both lower cost internet options.
Whitacre said that of the state's current broadband connections, 85% are fiber and the remaining 15% are fixed wireless – a technology which acts similarly to cell phone service from a tower. But satellite internet service will be newer to the state.
Satellite is relatively easy to get into rural places as opposed to fiber, Whitacre said. But he cautioned that with satellite, internet speeds are slower; it’s more difficult to update; and consumers could see higher monthly bills.
“Could we have paid for more fiber for some of these places that are just getting satellite? Yeah, I think we could have,” Whitacre said. “I don't think there's any question that it's a superior technology … but it just comes with these trade-offs of how much is too much to connect a location or just a handful of locations?”
Drew Garner, the director of policy engagement at the non-profit Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said NTIA is now essentially treating all broadband technology as if it’s equal.
“So we're not going to be looking at sort of the best quality network,” he said. “We're going to be looking at the least expensive networks.”
The Benton Institute, based in Wilmette, Illinois, advocates for reliable and affordable internet nationwide. Garner said the BEAD process is now taking affordability for consumers out of the equation, focusing instead on what’s least expensive for the BEAD program, “not least expensive to the household.”
He said with the new round of proposals, they’re seeing satellite internet service gain more locations across the country, a technology that can be more expensive for consumers' monthly bills. And the satellite service providers include Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper and Elon Musk's Starlink.
“In fact, the two companies that have won the most locations with BEAD so far are Starlink and Kuiper,” Garner said.
As for the money that’s been saved by the BEAD program, Garner said it remains unclear where it will go. For instance, in Oklahoma, the initial allocation to the state was $797 million, while the final tentative allocation is $550 million. Garner said states are waiting for guidance from the NTIA.
“They are being very cagey about what they're going to let states do with that money,” he said. “By law it is the states’ money. We're just waiting for NTIA to say what they can do with it.”
Long-term outlook
The state of Wisconsin has worked to improve internet connectivity in recent years. Since 2019, its broadband office has allocated $345 million in state and federal funds to expand high-speed internet, connecting about 410,000 homes and businesses with new or improved broadband.
Not everyone is happy with the move away from fiber in the BEAD program, according to Gail Huycke, a community development specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“We're hearing from communities that are concerned as to what that’s going to mean for sustainability,” Huycke said.
The state’s initial proposal sought 93% fiber projects with BEAD funding. Under the new proposal, that’s now dropped to about 74%.
Huycke said now some worry whether there will be future costs tied to non-fiber projects.
“I think that's one of the things that people are seeing as so frustrating,” she said, “because they're afraid we're going to have to go backwards again and do some of those areas over.”
Although the goal was “internet for all,” Huycke said she expects there will continue to be need in parts of Wisconsin.
But in the Oklahoma Broadband Office, Sanders said BEAD is expected to help the state get to the remaining 5% toughest, most expensive places to connect in the state.
“When it's all said and done, I believe Oklahoma will be very proud with the product that we have produced,” Sanders said. “However, there's a big ‘however’ here, everything will now lie within NTIA.”
Sanders is hoping to have shovels in the ground next spring, but NTIA must approve the project proposals before the money funnels to states.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
