Nevada awarded $416M to expand high-speed internet access

Now that the funding has been approved, state officials can negotiate with internet service providers to install the necessary infrastructure and move forward with connectivity.

The Biden administration this week officially approved a plan from the state of Nevada to bolster access to high-speed internet across the state, including in many rural swaths where connectivity is currently nonexistent, joining two other states as the only ones to receive funding thus far. 

The Nevada Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) will receive approximately $416 million in federal funding under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which was created from the 2021 Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. The project is projected to deliver internet access to more than 43,000 unserved and underserved households statewide, in all of Nevada’s 17 counties. 

Now that the funding has been approved, OSIT can negotiate with internet service providers to install the necessary infrastructure and move forward with connectivity. Nevada joins Louisiana and Delaware as states to have spending plans approved, with roughly 20 other states working on applications. 

“Faced with challenging terrain, Nevada has built an outstanding plan to connect the unconnected,” Alan Davidson, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said in a statement. “Nevada’s plan shows how we can economically bring the best possible Internet service to people using a variety of technologies. Today it can put that plan into action and bring high-speed Internet service to everyone in the state.”  

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The state included in its application for the funding a commitment to spend an additional $137 million for the project. The trade publication Broadband Breakfast reported Friday that more than 80% of qualifying homes and businesses are set to receive fiber optic connectivity — a faster, more reliable option than traditional broadband — while the rest will be split between satellite, fixed wireless, and hardwired connectivity. 

Advocates of the program have voiced concerns that it could be subject to spending cuts once the Trump administration takes office, but analysts believe once BEAD programs go online that rescinding funding for those programs will become deeply unpopular. 

“We have our doubts as slowing down aid to rural America is not optically a plus for the new Administration,” Blair Levin, former FCC chief of staff and a policy analyst for the research firm New Street Research, said in an investor note Friday. “A stop work would complicate the program for them. It would also create significant uncertainty for ISPs who are potential bidders.”