The Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) has announced the preliminary awardees selected to assume Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) projects that were voluntarily declined by their original awardees.
As ILSR has explored, the unpopular changes and massive delays introduced by the Trump administration to the BEAD program have resulted in not only a large number of states having to retool their plans, but many original project bidders retreating from their original proposals.
In some cases, soaring U.S. costs have resulted in ISPs reconsidering their commitment to original broadband expansion plans.
In other instances, providers have grown frustrated with additional bureaucratic hurdles affixed to BEAD deployments by the NTIA.
According to an OBO announcement, four of the state’s original BEAD awardees declined a total of 15 projects prior to the state’s June 10 Notice of Intent to Award acceptance deadline. The projects represented 13,381 broadband serviceable locations (BSLs), approximately $122.9 million in requested grant funding, and more than $39.1 million in matching contributions.
Oregon is slated to receive $689 million in total BEAD funding to shore up Internet access to communities trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.
The replacement providers chosen to fulfill the original planned deployments include Alyrica, Amazon LEO, the City of Sherwood, Columbia County, Douglas Fast Net (DFN), and Stimulus Technologies — one of which is a municipal broadband provider and the other an electric cooperative (Sherwood Broadband and Douglas Fast Net).
"The successful reassignment of these projects demonstrates the strength of Oregon's broadband partnerships and the resilience of the state's BEAD implementation process," said Nick Batz, Director of Oregon Broadband Office. "By following a transparent, competitive replacement process, Oregon has ensured that communities will continue moving toward universal access to reliable, high-speed internet."
The higher cost of deployments due to labor shortages, fluctuations in the prices of essential materials sensitive to the Iran War and tariffs, and other factors such as permitted delays and make-ready costs are expected to result in a notable number of additional providers retreating from their original bids, mirroring problems seen with the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) during the first Trump administration.
