West Virginia has released for public comment its draft Final Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Proposal. The following companies were selected to receive BEAD support to serve approximately 74,000 locations in the state: (1) Frontier West Virginia, Inc.; (2) Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX); (3) Gigabeam Networks LLC; (4) Citynet LLC; (5) Armstrong Telecommunications, Inc.; (6) Comcast Cable Telecommunications Management LLC; (7) Micrologic, Inc.; (8) Digital Connections, Inc.; and (9) Hardy Telecommunications, Inc. The final proposal calls for awarding $625 million in BEAD funding to the subgrantees and $37.5 million in Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding, with awardees providing $186 million in matching funding. Comments on the draft Final Proposal are due August 26. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has set a September 4 deadline for states and territories to submit their final proposals.
